Unconventional Punishment
by RavenGlare
Summary: Four friends are unceremoniously thrown into a thought-to-be-fictional world. The war is over and the good'ol excuse of "Just following orders" has worked out pretty well for the soldiers of shadow. A group of Uruk-hai struggle to avoid Orc hunters and their lives aren't made any easier by their new guests. It's my failed NaNoWriMo, and I'll update as I edit. Hope someone likes it!
1. Chapter 1

Chapter one: A flash

Aquila and Kathleen stood facing each other across the small coffee table, strewn with various books, papers, writing utensils and long forgotten mugs. Their shoulders were squared; Aquila's arms crossed and a stern look on her face. Aquila was tall and thin, her hair was dark, like her eyes, and cut into a short style. She was wearing a white button up shirt and purple tie. She rose and accusatory finger at the other girl, fixing her with a sideways glare.

"Listen to me okay? No one is going to clean up your god dammed messes for you anymore!"

Kathleen smiled and glanced away from Aquila's eyes. She was shorter than Aquila, her dark, straight hair hung down to her chin, framing her round face. She had brown eyes and a light brow, both of which were in a stubborn set of rebellion.

"I have no idea what you're talking about." She said snidely.

Aquila gestured to the kitchen over the back of the chair Isla was currently occupying, holding an open book in her lap, glancing up occasionally from between two curtains of mousey brown, dreaded hair, being held out of her face by her glasses to watch the fight that was transpiring.

"Look at that! There are literally noodles fused with the wall because of you!" Aquila shrieked raising her eyebrows she flailed her hands around in exasperation. Kathleen was still smiling and the sight of her, seemingly enjoying the outbreak just made Aquila angrier.

"Who says that was me?" Kathleen chuckled.

"Well, uh, I mean you are the only person that throws food at the wall to see if it's ready... Yeah. Not just noodles." Vicky chimed in, looking up at Kathleen with her almond shaped eyes. She was sitting cross-legged on the couch, one headphone in, covered by her black wavy, shoulder length hair, and connected to the Ipad sitting in her lap. When Kathleen fixed her with a don't-you-dare-take-her-side kind of glare, Vicky giggled nervously and went back to whatever it was she was doing on her little device.

"Come on you guys, help me out with this." Aquila said with a whine in her voice. She turned towards the two sitting comfortably on their separate pieces for furniture. Isla looked up slowly, still seeming to be half immersed in the pages of her book. Her disinterested, light blue, eyes moved between the two of them lazily, settling on Aquila with a questioning look.

"Hmm?"

Aquila sighed, hanging her head and motioning her arm towards Kathleen.

"Oh!" Isla exclaimed finally understanding. "Uhm, well I had to clean up the mess you made in the laundry room today" She said half heartedly, turning back to her book "I don't understand how it's even possible to get that much detergent outside of the washer machine."

"Yo." Vicky said, raising her hand. "You left your bowl of pasta under my bed that night we watched a movie in there. I didn't find until it was covered in fuzz and... liquefying... so, uh, there's that." She slowly lowered her hand again and looked away.

"Okay! Yeah, see? Kathleen you're a mess! You know we have a list of chores, each one accompanied by a name for a reason right?" Aquila laughed humorlessly, "It's right over there. On the fridge. Not just for decoration."

"Don't talk to me like a kid! You're no better than me."

"You act like a messy three year old! Sticky fingers and all. I clean up my crap, dude! "

"She even does dishes sometimes. Woah. Crazy."

"Shut up!" Kathleen picked up a pencil from the cup being used as a makeshift pencil holder on the table and tossed it at Vicky, hitting her on the side of the head.

"Ah! What the shit?"

"Don't throw things at my Asian!" Exclaimed Aquila.

"You're all ganging up on me!"

"Oh my god. I just remembered the half a dozen condoms you blew up and tossed around the flat." Isla had looked up from her book again, only to have to dodge another flying pencil from Kathleen.

"That was one time!"

"Can you stop with the pencils? You're gonna have to clean those up too, you little shit!" Aquila shouted becoming more and more fed up with her friend by the second. She leapt forward and grabbed the cup of pencils from the middle of the table and cradled them against her chest protectively. "And I almost killed myself on one of those popped condoms, or maybe it was just one of the old ass black bananas you like to take out of your bag and leave all over the place. We pay for those, you know? Maybe it wouldn't be so bad if you chipped in for groceries like you were supposed to."

Kathleen's hands grabbed onto her hair on either side as she threw her head back and groaned dramatically.

"Why am I living with you guys?" She cried.

Kathleen was fairly spastic regardless, but when she hulked out so to speak, she was definitely to be feared. She now swept a pile of papers off the coffee table and into the middle of the floor. They flew, spinning, twisting and fluttering to cover the hardwood of their living room.

"Oh shit. There goes the pile of fan-fiction" Murmured Isla, still not looking up. Vicky broker her attention away from the screen and watched, ready to see the situation worsen further.

"You wanna see a mess?" Kathleen giggled, fixing Aquila with a crazy look.

Aquila held up the hand not cradling the pencil cup and pointed, glaring down her finger at Kathleen. "You don't fucking mess with my fan-fiction, you bitch. Fucking do not." Everyone froze waiting to see what would happen next. "All we want is for you to do your part, you dick!" Aquila brought the cup of pencils behind her head, aiming for Kathleen and screamed "How would you like to clean up our fucking messes all the time?" before hurling it directly at Kathleen's head.

There was a moment when Kathleen stood, ready for the blow; all eyes were on the fight. But in a fraction of a second Kathleen's expression turned from one of anger to complete confusion. She looked like something heavy had just hit her in the chest, knocking all of the wind out of her and throwing her backwards; she seemed to be falling through empty space in slow motion, though it all happened so fast. There was a flash of impossible blackness, pulling Kathleen into its center as the shocked on-lookers threw their arms up to shield their faces. Then Kathleen was gone, leaving nothing but the faint sound of air filling empty space. The pencils hit the ground across the room and slid, scattering across the hardwood floor.

No one spoke. They all stared in different states of shock and denial, mouths hanging open and eyes wide at the empty space where Kathleen had been standing just a moment before. Vicky slowly removed the headphone from her ear and Isla's book clattered to the floor, the only sound in the now silent apartment. As the shock started to wear off, their eyes darted to one another and Aquila started to hyperventilate. She looked desperately towards Isla, wide eyed, her mouth working, trying to form words. Isla and Vicky both gazed at her waiting and hoping for any kind of explanation or theory or something that they might have missed that Aquila might be able to produce answers for.

She wasn't able to get any kind of anything out before her eyes went wider still as she too was thrown backwards, her arms seemingly grasping for something to keep her steady, her feet raising off of the floor. Isla broke out of the daze this time and jumped up trying to grab onto her, but too late. There was once again blackness, an unfittingly calm whoosh, and Aquila was gone as well. Isla fell back, landing hard, once again staring at empty space.

"What's happening?" Isla gasped. She turned and scrambled to her feet, moving quickly towards Vicky, who was still sitting, staring at where Aquila should have been. Vicky looked up and just managed to meet Isla's desperate eyes, as fear filled her own. Then Isla was gone too, making one final lunge to get to Vicky before she was pulled into the center of another void.

Vicky whimpered. A pathetically small noise in the massive silence and emptiness that now surrounded her. The door to their apartment opened behind her and she whipped around just in time to see a small girl enter.

"Hey guys, I was wondering if you had any-" She froze, her question forgotten as she saw the fear and confusion in Vicky's eyes and her mind tried to make sense of it. "What-" she began to ask, but she was again cut short by Vicky's expression as it changed to wide-eyed shock.

Vicky managed to get three words out before she too was thrown into her own disappearance. The sight of which caused the small girl to scream and flail, running wildly back to her apartment across the hall.

"What the shit-"


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two: An Impact and a Stranded Companion.

Kathleen lay on the ground with her eyes squeezed shut as she groaned in pain. She heard the corresponding schwump-thud of another arrival, followed by a second, and finally a third that seemed farther off. Each one of them gasped just as Kathleen had done on her impact and proceeded to groan in pain. For the moment their shock of being suddenly and very impolitely transported to some mystery location was forced from their minds by the present piss-off of turning up about five feet off of the ground and falling that distance onto hard packed earth.

Kathleen, feeling it necessary to take some kind of action, opened her eyes and slowly eased herself up into a sitting position, looking around and seeing Isla and Aquila sprawled out on the ground.

"So... that just happened." Kathleen said quietly; as if speaking too loudly would break the wall holding back all of the emotions currently being felt by all of them.

"Yep" Aquila wheezed, rolling onto her stomach slowly and pushing herself up onto her knees. She blinked a few times trying to focus then put her hand up to cover her face, groaning.

"Guys?" Isla whispered. She scrambled to her feet, her hands going to her face and pushing her glasses to the top of her head, as she backed up against the nearest tree. Tree? Aquila and Kathleen looked around in wonderment. They had landed in a small clearing, the branches of trees reaching for one another above their heads. They could see the sun and feel its warmth on their faces. The wind rustled through the branches, brushing their faces and bringing the fresh smell of the forest with it. Kathleen inhaled deeply and stood up.

"What. The hell. Happened to us." Isla whimpered quietly.

Kathleen scanned the clearing, stretching, ignoring Isla's question and asking her own. "Where's Vicky?"

A groan sounded from somewhere not far off and Aquila looked up, scanning the surrounding greenery. She let out a short laugh as her eyes settled on something caught in the bows of a tree.

"I found her."

The two pairs of eyes followed Aquila's up into the branches, not too far from where Isla was clinging to the trunk of a tree. They all landed on the same thing. Well, there was Vicky.

Vicky could feel something firm pushing harshly into her midsection, just below her ribs. It felt as if her entire weight was balanced on that one point, crushing her lungs and stomach, compressing her ribs. She groped around with her hands and feet feebly, trying to find purchase on anything that could take some of her weight. She opened her eyes slowly, squinting through the fog of her discomfort. When she saw what was beneath her, her eyes shot open, one hand grabbing onto the branch beneath her, the other latching to one just above and in front of her head. Her legs shot out and pushed off of whatever they made contact with, effectively lifting her middle off of its invasive perch.

"Wha-" Vicky gasped, unable to finish as she filled her previously compressed lungs with much needed oxygen. She sat there, panting, staring at the ground far beneath her, trying to piece together an explanation as to what the hell had happened.

"Hey, Vicky!" Vicky slowly and carefully turned her head to see the origin of the oddly cheery voice. Kathleen was standing three yards away, waving energetically at the girl caught, unhappily up in the lower branches of the tree. Vicky drew here eyebrows together in dismay. Aquila was kneeling on the ground, holding her head and pointing up at her, but Vicky couldn't see Isla. She stared in awe at her friends, before she became aware of the ache beginning to burn its way into her arms and legs. She grunted as she manoeuvred herself into the nook between the trunk of the tree and the branch she'd landed on. She wobbled clumsily.

"Why the fuck" She hooked her arm over the closest branch "did I get stuck in a tree?" she shouted at her safely grounded friends "out of all people!?" She threw her other arm up carelessly in exasperation and almost slid off of her branch with a small frightened sound. She quickly grabbed on to the next closest branch, and held on for dear life. Vicky had fixed herself now in another uncomfortable and awkward position.

"Meh, you'll be fine." Kathleen shrugged waving her off uninterestedly. Kathleen then turned around and peered through the trees on the opposite side of the clearing. Aquila stood up slowly, dusting herself off and stretching, cracking her back loudly. She ran her fingers tentatively once through her short hair, and joined her friend in examining their whereabouts. Vicky caught a glance of Isla peeking around the thick trunk of a nearby tree, her eyes wide.

"Vicky? You good?"

"Me? Oh well... Yeah sure. I mean-" Vicky started looking around for any possible way to get herself down "Oh god. I don't, uh, do so good with trees, You know?"

"Yeah." Isla laughed humorlessly.

"You guys, can you get me down from here?"

Aquila and Kathleen were both standing at the edge of the clearing looking outwards at nothing in particular. Kathleen picked up a stick and threw it as far as she could. They could hear the sound of it clattering through the tree branches to the ground a little ways off.

"Where the hell are we?" Aquila asked. She didn't expect an answer; it just seemed like the right thing to say at the moment. She looked over to Kathleen worriedly.

"Dude, do you think..." Kathleen paused still looking out into the woods.

Aquila didn't wait for her to continue. "No, I didn't think you knew. I don't know why I asked." Aquila huffed and turned back towards Isla and Vicky. Isla was below the tree Vicky was stranded in now, talking up to her. She had the look of a cornered mouse about her, all jittery and wide eyed.

"No, Stupid! Not what I was going to say." Kathleen punched Aquila in the arm. Aquila exclaimed at the sudden impact and rubbed her arm sullenly, turning back to listen to what Kathleen had to say.

"Fine what were you going to say, oh wise one."

"This kind of reminds me of something. Like out of some of those Lord of the Rings fan-fics we read, right?"

"What, you don't think-" Aquila's eyes lit up and she completely forgot about the pain in her arm.

"Well it fits, doesn't it? We were minding our own business-Oh hey, you threw something at me, you dick!"

"Ow!" Aquila cried, rubbing her arm again. "That doesn't matter right now! Do you think this could really be happening? Oh my god, what if this is Middle Earth!?" Aquila squealed, jumping up and down in excitement. Kathleen promptly did the same.

"Anyway, you were saying?" Aquila quickly regained herself and urged Kathleen to continue.

"Right, so we're minding our own business, then bam! New place, I mean It looks like how I would imagine Middle Earth."

"Jesus Christ, guys, can we discuss where we are once we get me on the ground?" Vicky was already at the limits of her patience, being caught up in a tree and all, but the gleeful laughter that had come from the other end of the clearing was pushing her off the edge.

"Shouldn't there be someone here?"

"Guys, seriously-"

"That's how it always works isn't it?"

"I want down!"

"Guys, maybe we should help Vi-" Isla tried to interject.

"I wonder if the war is still going on."

"I'm fucking done with this, you guys need to-"

"Should we wait here or-"

"WOULD YOU TWO JUST SHUT THE FUCK UP ANG GET ME THE FUCK OUT OF THE TREE?"

Finally there was silence. Aquila and Kathleen glanced over their shoulders at Vicky, then at each other. Aquila opened her mouth to speak, but just then the sound of a twig snapping resounded through the quiet, like an especially loud fart in church. The silence after that seemed to go on forever as the four stood unmoving and awaited whatever might come next. Finally Isla spoke.

"Holy shit" She hissed.

"Honestly? A freaking twig snap? That's how this is gonna go? Great."Aquila walked over to the side of the clearing in the direction the noise had come from.

Isla took a tentative step towards her, wringing her hands. "Shhh shut up! We don't know what that could be." She said in a frantic whisper "We need to get Vicky down, okay? And we need to get out of here."

"It was one tiny twig! What could it possibly be?" Kathleen said matter of factly, watching Aquila.

"Whatever it is I'd rather not find out. Please can we go?" Isla was falling apart farther now; she couldn't seem to be able to stand still, her eyes darting around wildly.

"Just calm down!" Kathleen shouted "whatever it is or was or whatever, me and Aquila will take care of it if it comes, right?" She turned to Aquila and gestured purposefully towards Isla.

"Yeah, I mean, how bad could it be?" Aquila turned around and started to walk back towards Kathleen.

There was an ear shattering roar and something burst through the bush. Aquila whipped around and her eyes met the creatures. They were predatory, cat-like, orange, and highlighted with yellow. His heavy brow was furrowed and his mouth, full of sharp teeth, was pulled down into a scowl. And it was a he, for through his animalistic characteristics he looked surprisingly human. How had that managed to sneak up on them? He was massive! A low growl resonated through him, and Isla's wall finally broke as she started screaming. He roared again, stomping purposefully towards Aquila, raising his arm which she now realized was holding a crude club of sorts, but this time there were words, spoken in a deep and harsh tongue in the deafening sound of his fury.

"Why can't you just leave us the fuck alone?"

They took a fraction of a second to contemplate what the hell he meant by that. Aquila probably should have run or at least moved over. Let the merry gentleman carry on his way, maybe? But she was so entranced by the beast, unable to tear her eyes away from his that were so full of anger. He was just as she imagined, just like they were always described in the stories. By the time she managed to act, it was too late. Just as Aquila turned towards Kathleen, intent of running from the assailant, the end of the club collided with the back of her skull and lights flashed before her eyes. She fell, hitting strange, hard packed earth for the second time that day. From her place on the ground, half of her face smushed into the dirt, she witnessed Kathleen's expression of awe and excitement, akin to how her own had looked, turn to one of concern and fear as the hulking mass of the Uruk charged towards her. It was not him who knocked her out however. He skidded to a stop right in front of her, glaring down, as a second jumped from the trees behind Kathleen and knocked her in the back of the neck with his thick elbow. He was different than the first. He was shorter, his shoulders were thicker, his face was harsher, and he didn't stand as straight. He looked less like a man, Aquila noted hazily. She saw him chuckle to himself. The sight was probably the most terrifying thing that she'd seen today. And that is saying something.

Isla was still screaming, now joined by Vicky who was desperately trying to climb higher up the tree, trying to get out of reach. Her movements were jerky, clumsy, and frantic. She carelessly grabbed onto and broke multiple branches in her efforts. Aquila's fading eyes drifted over and saw a much smaller Orc jump onto Isla's back and latch on, tackling her to the ground as she screamed and fought. She was soon knocked unconscious as well. The last thing Aquila acknowledged before blackness took her was the sound of Vicky's terrified screams, and that, maybe, they should have gotten her out of that tree after all. She mentally kicked herself before she mentally kicked it.


	3. Chapter 3

AN: This chapter is quite a bit longer than I intended. I just couldn't find a good place to cut it short. Thank you so much to Borys68 and Zoop for reviewing. It made my day! Hope you enjoy this chapter!

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Chapter Three: Encounters of the Fourth Kind

"Kûfdergaz, whiteskins." Dhûrum growled smoothly, jerking his head behind him.

Kûfdergaz turned towards Dhûrum and growled low in his chest, "What?" His ire was visibly rising already. "We were supposed to be rid of them!" he roared, pulling his club from his belt and gripping it firmly "How many?"

"Four. Was upwind, looked like three females, one man."

"Armed?"

Dhûrum shook his head "Couldn't see. Angry, loud, foolish.

"Fine." Kûfdergaz furrowed his heavy brow in determination and turned to face the camp, as stern set to his jaw. "Gîmogrûz, Gazushum, Bûsnkaar, you come with me. We have Orc killers to deal with."

The three afore mentioned Uruks rose from their various places around their temporary camp. Gîmogrûz smiled mischievously and chuckled to himself. "Been a while since we've had a good tussle, hasn't it?" He grinned even wider and lumbered over to stand next to the commanding Uruk. Bûsnkaar, who had been sitting next to Gîmog, rose and strode after him, his face the epitome of disinterest. He stood a good half a foot taller than Gîmog, though they were both similarly thick and muscled.

"There will be no unnecessary fighting. We will take them without bloodshed." Kûfdergaz started at the shorter Uruk pointedly.

Gîmog's smile lessened a little and he gave a huff of dissatisfaction, but otherwise did not argue.

"Why must I go?" Gazushum had come around the fire to stand with the group. He was completely dwarfed by all of them and avoided all eyes except for the leaders.

"In case there_ is_ bloodshed. And because I commanded so, Imp." Kûfdergaz looked over his choices appraisingly and then curtly nodded. "Right, let's get this over with. I'm tired of these bastards."

The four Uruks surrounded the small group of Whiteskins, Bûsnkaar and Gazushum taking up one side, Kûfdergaz and Gîmogrûz taking the other. Everyone was sitting in position awaiting their leader to make his move. Kûfdergaz sat, shielded by the forest and assessed the situation. He too was upwind and, just as Dhûrum had said, there seemed to be three females and one man. Though the man was small and slim, not much of a threat, his skin was not pale like one would expect from a man of Rohan, but a light brown. His hair was short and strangely cut in a way that it was longer towards the front, also unexpected and new to the Orc. Now that he looked at the rest of them, they were all strange.

All of them had very dark hair and dark skin, unlike the golden-headed people he was accustomed to, save one. She was pale and her hair, though not golden, was much lighter than the others. It was the strangest out of all of them. The female standing at the base of the tree, Kûf couldn't smell the stench of fear coming off of her, but he knew it was there, he could see it in the way she shook and fretted. Her hair looked almost as if it was matted, like it gets after not caring for it for a very long time, though the strange mats were in neat round sections, almost as if it was simply her hair that was unconventionally thick, there were small ornaments woven into a few of the ropes as well. Kûf took a step closer, trying to get a better look at the one in the tree. His foot landed on a dry twig, snapping it. He froze, cursing his stupid mistake. There was a moment of stillness as the strange group looked around. The one with light ropes of hair whispered something he couldn't hear and the man came close to his location. There was something not quite right about him.

Regardless, none of them were armed and didn't seem to be wearing any sort of armor. That was another interesting thing about them; their clothing was thin, brightly coloured articles he had never seen before. They looked as if they would be completely useless as protection against the elements, let alone a blade.

"May as well get this over with" Kûf growled under his breath. Though they were completely new to him in every way, there was only ever one group of men that roamed this far and they never came with good intent. He would not allow them to take him and his men by surprise.

He moved quickly, taking out the first one without any fight. He stopped before the second, seeing Gîmog make his move. Gazushum knocked the rope-haired one down and knocked her unconscious with one of his herbal concoctions that he favoured over physical strength like the rest of them. He forced a cloth to her face and she was out in seconds.

With all of them down and Kûfdergaz now amongst them, he sniffed curiously and whirled around. It was not that he smelled something strange, but something amiss. He moved to the first tark that had been knocked over the head, and the place where it lay face down in the dirt. He gruffly rolled it onto its back and breathed in her scent. For it was a female. Despite her square chin and dark brows highlighting her dark eyes, her slack face let slip through the more feminine look. He jerked back in shock. What the hell were four women doing in the middle of nowhere, unarmed, unalert, and unprotected?

"Nononononon hold up! Hold up!" Kûfdergaz looked towards the commotion. He had almost forgotten about the one in the tree. She was clinging to the highest branch she could get to as Bûsnkaar started pulling himself up towards her. She held her hand out towards him as if to tell him to stop. Kûf snorted a sharp laugh.

"Hurry and get her down from there, I don't care if you have to toss her out. We get them back to camp as soon as possible and find out if there are any more of them lurking around." He grumbled and turned to face Gîmogrûz, sharing a brief nod they both moved to pick up one of the limp bodies lying about.

The woman gave a little squeak of fear as Bûsnkaar closed in. "Okay, no! Just don't hurt me! I'll do whatever. I'll come down, just stop!" she sobbed.

After Bûsnkaar had dragged the girl out of the tree with her crying "Oh god oh god" over and over again, they all started off back to camp, Kûfdergaz taking up the lead, followed by Gîmogrûz, Bûsnkaar, with two bodies slung over his massive shoulders, and Gazushum following behind.

Isla's mind slowly started coming back to her and she stirred. She smelled a sweetness that seemed to be stuck in her nose, she could almost taste it on her lips. She felt soft earth beneath her and heard low rumbling conversation a little ways off. Barking laughter erupted from behind her. She considered opening her eyes and looking around, and then she remembered all that had happened and squeezed her eyes shut, her breath catching in her throat. She could feel a strong heat on her face that she assumed was a fire, hearing its cracks and pops. A warm body was at her back and she hoped to god it was one of her friends. Her body started shaking regardless of her efforts to remain still.

"Isla," Vicky spoke from beside her head, "Are you awake?" Isla opened her eyes slowly and looked up at Vicky, sitting with her knees pulled up to her chest. The sun was no longer visible above the trees and it looked as if twilight would soon be upon them. She felt the body at her back stir and bolted upright sliding away from it, leaning into Vicky. When realization hit that it just Aquila her tension lessened somewhat.

"Vicky, wha-" Isla tried to say, but just then Aquila shot up into a sitting position with a little "Ah!" Her expression of shock immediately crumpled into one of pain and she fell back to the ground clutching her head. At her loud groan of pain, the conversation at the other side of the camp stopped as everyone's attention was directed to the girls awakening. She lay on the ground breathing heavily for a few moments longer before she started muttering to herself. As she spoke she started easing herself upwards, crossing her legs and leaning forwards, still with her head in her hands.

"That was all a dream and we're just camping, right?" She said in an eary sing-song voice "I'm not crazy, just camping. I just lost some memory. Too drunk, maybe." She paused and further scrunched up her face before sighing "The pain in my head is just a hard-core hangover, that's it, 'cause we're just camping!" on the last word she flung her hands away from her face and into the air. She had an expectant smile on her face as she took in her surroundings. Her open fingers slowly curled into fists and plopped down into her lap, her face morphing into a mask of disappointment that quickly slid away revealing subtle contentment "Well at least we're in Middle Earth, so it's not too bad."

"Not too bad? Dude, we're literally surrounded by the main force of evil in Middle Earth." Isla whispered.

Kathleen, who had had her back to them, rolled over and laughed "Hahaaaa I'm sure that if they were still their old evil selves they would have done much worse to us, rather than just knock us out and lay us down by the fire." She said, stretching her arms out above her.

"You think the war's over?" Aquila mumbled, rubbing at her temples, obviously still fighting through the pain in her head.

"They wouldn't be camped here if it wasn't." she rolled and stretched her neck from side to side "Ugh my neck is sore, wish I had thought to bring some Advil through the mysterious portal."

"At least your head doesn't feel like a cracked, imploding egg. You got a quick hit to the neck. I had some asshole crack me over the skull with some shitty ass club." Aquila was pressing her palms into her temples, her face scrunched up in pain and frustration.

"Some guy jumped on my back and chloroformed me." Isla sighed to no one in particular.

Aquila coughed a laugh "I saw that. That was awesome. Very dramatic."

"It was kind of... terrifying actually."

"Hey, at least you guys got knocked out." Vicky snapped at them. Then she looked past Kathleen and nodded "You see that guy over there? The big guy."

Everyone turned. There was no doubting which one Vicky was talking about when she said "big guy." I mean sure, all Uruks are pretty big, but this guy was a behemoth. He had to have stood many inches taller than even the biggest Uruk in the camp.

They all gawked at him. Aquila's hands dropped from her head, her mouth hanging open, she nudged Kathleen insistently. "Kathleen..."

Kathleen didn't even turn around, "Berserker" She muttered, excitement rising in her voice.

And that he was. Unlike the other Uruks, this one had no hair what so ever on his head. He wore a leather jerkin that looked too small for him and seemed to be straining across his heavily muscled chest, his pants were a patchwork of various animal hides that were tucked into a pair of shabby looking leather boots, which also looked like they didn't fit too well judging by the protrusions where it looked like his toes were trying to force their way out.

"I think there's something wrong with you guys." Isla sighed. She rubber at her mouth and nose with the sleeve of her hoodie, trying to get the smell and taste of whatever was on her face to go away. She gave up and looked back to Vicky.

"That guy dragged me out of the tree." Vicky continued. She let her arms fall and straightened out her legs, showing a deep gash running the length of her calf. The denim of her jeans had been torn open and was stained red with blood. Though it looked pretty bad it seemed that the worst of the bleeding had stopped.

"Oh my god, Vicky, did he do that?" Isla exclaimed.

"Well... uh, more the tree did it. My bad, I was too scared that he'd drop me... or something. I didn't exactly make it easy for him or me. I just really fucking hate trees." Vicky almost looked embarrassed now.

"Well you're doing pretty well for having just sustained your first real injury." Aquila said poking fun. "Proud'a you." She smiled.

The berserker noticed all of the eyes on him now. He looked at them plainly, then turned to the Uruk sitting next to him and motioned his head towards the women. The Orc shifted and sneered at them, baring his tusks. He stood up and started walking towards them, the berserker close in his footsteps. Kathleen, who had propped herself up on her elbows when "the big guy" was mentioned, now straightened out her arms and sat with her hands behind holding her up.

And so, all sitting in a line by the fire, the four prepared mentally for their first real, hopefully non-violent interaction with a being of Middle Earth. Aquila and Kathleen were anxious and excited, Isla was a little wary, but interested, and Vicky, well she'd been awake ever since they'd arrived. She had to listen to them talk as they were all carried to the camp and had been listening to them talk ever since. Not that she could understand much, but her interest at the moment was non-existent. Her leg hurt and she just wanted to go home.

The Orc's smile was constant as he lumbered over. He threw himself down a little too close for comfort beside Kathleen and his smile grew.

"Hello, girlies, how about a little friendly company, eh?"

They all stared at him uncertainly, occasionally flicking their eyes up to the hulking mass of the berserker standing behind him. Kathleen smiled slyly, the display almost one to challenge the Orc's, and looked him over appraisingly. She squealed a laugh and turned back to Aquila.

"Aquilaaaa!"

"Uh huh, uh huh, yep, I know." Aquila was smiling too now.

Isla and Vicky glanced at each other. "There's definitely something wrong with them." Vicky muttered, "What else is new?" She said sarcastically, rolling her eyes.

Even through their excitement Aquila and Kathleen could see that there was something off about this guy, something unsettling. Maybe it was that his pointed tusks were just a little too long, or his shoulders a little too wide, his back too hunched, his eyes a little too close to red. Maybe it wasn't so much the harshness of his face and the colour of his eyes, but what was in them. There was something not so hidden that glinted in his expression, hinting that he was trouble, warning at it through the twitch at the corner of his mouth when he looked at him. Hunger, of a not so literal sort, that's what it was.

"Apologies for the clob on the head earlier, sharlob, had to be done." he chuckled to himself.

"Oh they even speak the language" Aquila cooed.

His expression changed slightly, the corner of his mouth rising higher as he narrowed his eyes at her. "A'course luv." He purred.

"Were you the one that hit me?" Kathleen chimed in, looking at him suspiciously, waiting for an answer.

Aquila briefly remembered what she had seen before blacking out earlier and chucked darkly to herself. He certainly was the one who'd done it. "Oh shit, you're in trouble, buddy."

The Orc's smile lessened a little and he looked a little confused. He flicked his eyes briefly between Aquila's waiting expression and Kathleen's darkening one.

"Aye, that was me, but you-"

"What was your name?" Kathleen interrupted in a falsely sweet tone.

"My- Uh, that'd be Gîmogrûz" He said, his smile gone now and replaced with an expression of uncertainty.

"WHAT THE HELL GÎMOGRÛZ?" Kathleen screamed, picking up a handful of dirt and small stone and hurling it at him. He was laughing now, his hands up to shield his face from her ineffective attack. Gîmogrûz turned his head to the Berserker.

"We've got ourselves a feisty one 'ere." He chuckled and lowered his hands, fixing Kathleen with his dangerously interested eyes. "Wasn't my decision, Nûrz-ash. You'll be wanting to throw your stones at the Gothlob."

"What the shit does Nûrz-ash mean?" Kathleen exclaimed angrily under her breath. Gîmogrûz grinned at her, otherwise ignoring her question.

"So who's the asshole that hit me with the club?" Aquila asked instead, rubbing the back of her head in grim remembrance.

"That would be me."

Another Orc was walking towards them from across the camp. His skin a dark, even brown, he was not as thickly muscled as the two already present Orc's, though one certainly wouldn't be quick to bet against him in a fight. His voice was deep and level. His heavy brow was furrowed over his yellow-highlighted dark orange eyes as he snarled at Gîmogrûz. "And don't fucking call me that, snaga baalak." The new comer gave Gîmogrûz a heavy clout to the back of the head as he passed. The sitting Orc threw up and arm in half-hearted defense and let out a low rumbling laugh.

"Oh great, so you're not only the dick that gave me the worst headache of my life, -which by the way is an impressive thing to have done, I am in college after all- but also the leader that gave orders to knock out and kidnap all of us?"

The Orc leader came to a stop in front of Aquila and fell into a crouch, resting his strangely detailed leather bracers on his knees, the lower panels of his similarly detailed tunic resting between his fur-clad legs. A crude club hung at his hip.

"Kûfdergaz, aye." He wrinkled his nose sharply and looked to Vicky, his eyes flicking to her wounded leg then back to her face. She squirmed uncomfortably under his scrutiny, raising her eyebrows and pulling her legs back up to her chest. Isla moved in front of her defensively. Kûfdergaz snorted and returned his gaze to Aquila. He rumbled from deep in his chest, his eyes burning into her.

"What's your business this far north? You ain't Orc hunters, as we first thought. Unless those weak fucks are having their women fight their battles for them now." Kûfdergaz scoffed harshly.

"Wait, Orc hunters? What do you mean?" Kathleen sat up fully now, interested.

"The fuck do you mean, what do I mean?" He snapped at her.

"Well, you're Orcs, I mean, isn't everyone Orc hunters?"

Kûfdergaz looked between Aquila and Kathleen's inquisitive faces with intense, judging eyes, in silence before Gîmogrûz answered for him.

"Been a law 'round since not long after the war ended, ain't no killin' an Orc less he's done you wrong first." His head swayed side to side with each syllable as he stated the law as if he were mocking it. He stopped and smiled once again at the women.

"Aha! So the war is over!" Kathleen cheered, drawing the leader's harsh glare in full. She huffed and looked away, folding her arms over her chest at the look. Gîmogrûz chuckled.

"'Course the fucking war's over. Six years, where the fuck have you been?" He growled at her.

"Somewhere far away from here" Isla muttered.

"Uh, yeah." Aquila said, rubbing the back of her head again. "We're kind of lost."

"So not Kalina Ohtar scum then?" The leader asked.

"Kalina O-what?" Aquila asked obliviously.

Kûfdergaz sighed and stood. "Fine. Rohan is far north from here. You'll have to skirt around the edge of Mirkwood. You'll start tomorrow."

"Woah, woah, wait-" Kathleen stammered.

"There is nothing to discuss!" Kûfdergaz roared. He looked to Vicky again. "You're injured, Gazushum with see to it in the morning. The sun is setting now; you will be given blankets for the night and supplies for your journey tomorrow." With that he spun on his heel and stomped off.

"Well shit." Isla stated bluntly.

"Yep." Grumbled Vicky. What a day. They had all been thrown from their home into a fiction world, sure Aquila and Kathleen had dreamed of the moment, though even they had wished it might have been a little less painful, and then they were knocked over the head or dragged from a tree in Vicky's case, kidnapped by creatures horror stories are written about, and to top it all off, they were now being kicked out and forced to walk for god knows how far!

"Come on!" Kathleen exclaimed incredulously. "You," She shoved a finger in Gîmogrûz's face "We don't want to go anywhere, we'd much rather stay with you assholes than walk to Rohan to be surrounded by a bunch of pompous war cowboys." She heard Isla giggle behind her and Vicky exclaim a short ha! Kathleen continued, "Can you talk to Mr. Cheer-less leader for us?"

"Yes!" Aquila gasped, "Please?"

Gîmog looked all of them over slyly for a moment, before his grin returned and he shrugged. "I don't see why not." He rose slowly, "I'm getting a little sick of this dim-witted gang anyway. Isn't that right, ya big dim-wit?" He chuckled again and patted the Berserkers chest as he walked in the direction Kûfdergaz had gone. "It'd be fun to have some new company. You'll owe me though!" He shouted back towards the girls.

The berserker bristled before them at Gîmogrûz's words. His eyes, highlighted by the fire, glistened. They were a mix golden yellows, oranges, and red, flecked with darker brown. He looked at each one of them in turn and strode briskly away.

"Huh. That was strange." Isla noted, "You see the way he reacted when Gîmog said we would owe him?" She met Kathleen's dark brown eyes "I'm not sure this is such a good idea."

"I don't even know if we should stay with these guys anyway!" Vicky hissed, "What would we do? We suck! We're not useful at all!"

"Well we want to stay." Aquila motioned to herself and Kathleen, "We've literally dreamed of this moment."

"Yeah," Kathleen said excitedly, "I mean you saw the big guy, he was awesome. Just think of what we could learn."

Isla huffed and hung her head. "Did you see the way 'the big guy' followed that creep around though? I don't trust them. It's like he's on a leash or something." Isla cut off when the Berserker returned a pile of blankets in his arms. He placed them down gently in front of her. He looked at them one by one again and turned to leave.

"Thanks, big guy." Aquila called after him cautiously.

He froze in his tracks. "Have a name." He muttered without turning. He turned his head slightly, so that they could see his face lit by the fire. He looked solemn, "Bûsnkaar." He said it so softly they could just barely hear him. Then he strode away again.

"Strange. Like I told you!" Isla flung her hands up in the air. The others just shrugged. "Whatever, I'm going to try and sleep."

She grabbed a blanket and splayed it out on the soft ground near the fire. It would be an extremely restless night, while they all tried to forget just what it was they were surrounded by.

* * *

_Translations: _My Black Speech comes from thelandofshadow dictionary. I aspire to take the lessons, but for now my BS is imperfect.

_Gothlob: _Queen

_Nurz-ash: Nurz_ translates as "angry" and -ash translates as "one".

_Baalak:_ Half-breed


	4. Chapter 4

AN: Jeez I just hope things don't get too confusing. I'll do my best. If you're reading, dropping a review does well to encourage me to keep going. Also there's a line in here that was originally a joke, but I decided to leave it because it's my story and I can do what I want! Follow my heart and stuff, you know.

Also I'm sorry for any mistakes.

* * *

Chapter Four: Meanwhile in Middle "Real" Earth

The girl was small for her age, smaller than most people that are small for their age. She had run so quickly out of that apartment after what she had seen she wasn't even sure if it was real. She was standing with her back to the wooden door of her own flat now, hands pressed firmly to its hard, reassuring surface, wide eyed and panting. She had screamed all the way out of there and had continued screaming as she slammed the door. Yet she still felt the urge threatening in the back of her throat. She had to check though, didn't she? She had to make sure she hadn't just seen wrong and overreacted. She laughed nervously to herself. Oh they must be thinking she's such an idiot. Of course Vicky hadn't just been thrown into a floating black abyss.

She swiftly swatted the few strands of short, curly hair from her face. She grabbed a small step stool, kept by the door for her use, and turned around. Her hands flexed at her sides. Slowly she rose up on her tip toes and strained to look through the peep hole in the door.

The door of the flat across the hall was hanging open to a view of the couch's back and the side of the lazyboy chair, both empty. She couldn't see any danger, just, well, nothing. She reached over to the door knob slowly, grabbing hold and turning, still looking through. She cracked the door open, giving a little squeak of fright and squeezing her eyes shut. When nothing happened she kicked the stool behind her and ducked her head through the door, looking up and down the hall quickly before returning her attention to the other open door. She took one step out of the safety of her doorway and stood, bouncing on the balls of her feet for a moment before running into the flat. She ran to the left, around the couch, and jumped over a ton of pencils strewn across the floor. Her footing slipped for an instant on the papers covering the majority of the living room floor, but she quickly regained her balance and ran to the chair, jumping over a book laying on messed, folded pages, and finally jumped over the back of the couch with Vicky's Ipad and headphones sitting unmanned and off to the side. With each jump and discovery she screamed. She ran right back to her flat across the hall, having cleared up that no one was where they should be, screaming all the way once again. She slammed the door and threw her hands against it in the same reassuring position. She stood, frozen for a moment, forgetting to breath, then she screamed three more times, jerking away from the door and shaking her hands. She backed up farther, bouncing up and down.

"What the hell, Annika?" A man emerged from his bedroom wearing a t-shirt a size or two too big for him. His brown hair was messy, and he blinked in the brightness of the living room. Annika screamed once more at his sudden entrance.

"Angus! Angus, they're gone!" Annika ran over to him and pointed at the door, hunching over and almost crouching as she caught her breath and tried to calm herself.

"Whaa?" Angus said uncomprehendingly, looking to where Annika was pointing.

"Angus, they're gone!"

Angus, after Annika had described what she had seen, once, and then twice, and a third time just in case, decided he should check it out for himself. They now stood in the center of the living room of the opposite apartment. Angus was holding the small foot stool in front of him like a shield 'protecting' Annika as she hid behind him, peeking under his arm. Angus looked around at the room, seemingly deep in thought.

"What happened again?"

"Ugh. I came in for the thingy- you know- uh thing! Not important! The door- Vick was- then she- Nyagggh!"Annika rambled in a high-pitched uncertain voice. Then she made a poof noise and swirled her hands around in front of her, behind Angus's back, where he couldn't see. Angus looked over his shoulder at her, quirked an eyebrow and laughed.

"What the shit?"

"No!" Annika slapped him in the arm. "This isn't funny!"

"What isn't funny? What are you guys doing?" There was a tall, pale girl standing between the open doors of both apartments, holding bags of groceries in both hands. She was looking concernedly at them from under her dark wavy bangs. Her black hair hung past the bottom of her grey vest, and almost brushed the top of her dark pleated skirt.

"Katlyn!" They both cried, running to her. Angus took the groceries from her hands, placing them by their own door as Annika frantically explained what had happened. They then dragged her over to the place they had been standing. Now all three of them poured over the scene.

Katlyn shrugged "How do we know they didn't all just, I don't know, go out, or something?" She looked back at her two long time friends/ college roomies, her face a platter, arranged with finely sliced sensibility that had been briefly seared in the frying pan of repose, and warmed in the oven of attempted understanding.

"They don't have any other friends, and they would have told us." Annika stated matter of factly.

"Also it's late, Monday, and exams are this week. They wouldn't have skipped out on classes. And look at this." Angus said in a high-pitched insistent voice. He pointed at the book laying improperly in front of the recliner, the Ipad sitting with headphones sprawled out, the many pages of printed off fan-fiction and pencils strewn willy-nilly across the hardwood floor.

"How did you know exams were this week, you don't even go to classes?" Annika asked, leaning forward and looking past Katlyn at Angus.

"It was on your calendar, but not the point. Come one Annika, connect the dots."

Annika scrunched up her face; she narrowed her eyes and looked at each anomaly in turn. "Why do I need to connect the dots? I literally saw Vicky get sucked into a black hole. Can we not all assume the same happened to the others?" She looked at Angus expectantly.

"Oh. I get it." Katlyn breathed.

Annika looked up at her face. "What?"

"Those fan-fictions are Aquila's babies. Do you leave your babies in disorganized piles on the floor? It looks like there was a god-damned struggle in here!" Angus asked pointedly, as it were the simplest thing in the world.

"That Ipad is Vicky's drug of choice. It's impossible to get her away from it." Katlyn continued.

"Yeah, unless you're a magic black hole" Annika muttered to herself.

"And Isla's book." Katlyn muttered.

"Wait." Angus broke off from their little protective huddle and headed towards the room Isla and Kathleen shared. He stood in the middle for a second, looking around. One side was neat and tidy, the other looking as if there had been a murder, an avalanche, a food fight, and a movie marathon. He scanned Kathleen's side, his eyes eventually landing on what he was looking for. He walked back out into the main room holding a black canvas backpack, 'superman' written out in small red print on the flap.

"Aw shit dawg." Annika whispered.

"I don't think she's gone anywhere without this thing since, what? 8th grade?" He lloked at it and his nose crinkled as he held it out, further from his face. "It smells like bad milk." Angus dropped the bag in the bedroom doorway and came back to stand beside Katlyn.

"Do you guys believe me now?" Annika peeped, jumping in front of Katlyn and looking at them both proudly.

Katlyn took one last look around the room "Well yeah, I mean, but what the hell happened to them?"

"And where the shit did they go?" Angus added.

"Well, we should try and find out." Katlyn shrugged. "For all we know they could be in some kind of danger."

The three roommates collected the various things from the floor of their friend's apartment and carried it back to their own, determined to find some sort of clue as to what the hell had happened to Isla, Kathleen, Aquila, and Vicky. They were important after all. The seven of them who had been friends since high school, had decided to stay together, or semi-together, while they all went through college. Except Angus of course, whose plans of joining the military were ever approaching, he just hadn't quite gotten around to it yet, and instead spent most of his days playing war games in his darkened bedroom. And so they set about the task of going through their friends' most important things, seeing if anything linked them together, besides that they lived in the same flat, which really didn't deserve any magical intervention. This is how they avoided studying for the rest of the night.

As the hours dragged on, Katlyn sat arranging the pages of fan-fiction into neat orderly piles, Annika skimmed through all of the notes kept on Vicky's Ipad as well as the tabs she had constantly opened and saved on safari, and Angus perused the internet trying to find anything to do with disappearances' similar to the one Annika had described.

The small curly haired girl yawned. "I'm tired." She admitted to the others.

"Noooooo." Angus groaned, leaning back in his office chair to look at her.

Katlyn caught the yawn out of the corner of her eye and followed suit. "We're no use to them too tired to function, I suppose." Katlyn agreed with Annika.

"Noooooooo." Angus groaned again, hunching his shoulders, a pleading look on his face.

Both girls rose, ignoring his objections. They both bid him goodnight, claiming that they had classes in the morning that they simply couldn't miss, and if their friends came back at least someone had to have a copy of the notes. Angus eventually sighed in defeat, though he never went to sleep himself. He had nothing to wake up early in the morning for. That night he hardly slept, sleeping was for those with lives, and so he continued the search without them.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter Five: Rise Quicker Than His Ire

"Hello? You have to wake up now."

Vicky groaned and rolled over, pulling her blanket over her head. What the hell, why was someone trying to wake her up? I couldn't be time to go to class already.

"I need to see to your leg."

"Uhhg, fuck off." Vicky swatted at whoever was trying to make her abandon her nice warm bed. What did the mysterious sleep ruiner mean by tend to her leg? There was nothing wrong with her leg. They should just go away and let her sleep. She slid her hand out from under the warm covers searching for her pillows. Her fingers' rested on something she was sure wasn't supposed to be on her bed. It felt cold.

"Kûfdergaz ordered me to wake you."

Vicky scrunched up her face, eyes still closed, mind still not completely warmed up. It felt like cold dirt. But why was there- "Oh shit!" Vicky shot out of her warm dream world and into her cold, unorthodox reality. There was an Uruk crouched down on one knee in front of her. She froze, swallowing hard, and starring at him. "Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit." She chanted, pulling her blanket around herself protectively. The Orc sighed and stood, and her eyes followed him all the way up.

"I'll be over there when you're ready to obey." He glanced at her dully with his Orange eyes and trudged away towards a small patch near the trees where she could see various things laid out next to and on top of a very small trunk, all resting on a neatly set down linen blanket. He was small, she realized. He must have only been about her height, and she wasn't exceptionally tall. It was odd, the others she had seen so far: Gîmogrûz, Kûfdergaz, and, oh god, Bûsnkaar, they had all been huge! The berserker had to have been 6'6" at least, probably taller, and what Gîmog lacked in height he made up for with his hulking, muscular, shoulders. However the one that had woken her was thin and wiry, his skin was a light shade of brown, and even that made him less menacing than the others, which, really, wasn't saying much. They were all still huge, hulking, sharp toothed, war machines in her eyes.

She released her tension a little, her eyes now roaming over the camp. There was a lot she had missed when they were all brought to this place. Must have been the sudden teleportation followed by the violent kidnapping of her friends and self that had put a damper on her observing abilities. The camp certainly wasn't meant to be permanent, there were no shelters of any sort, heavy looking backpacks laying all over the place, and it seemed that none of the group had even taken measures to lay out bedding for themselves. There were also many more to the group than any of the girls had first seen. Vicky counted six, all doing different things around the camp, or nothing at all as seemed to be Gîmog's case. Vicky finally looked down to the sleeping forms of her three friends.

She heard harsh words being spoken and turned to see Kûfdergaz coming, furiously towards her. She threw her hands up in front of her with a little "Aaaaaaah!" as he got closer. He stopped a foot in front of her and glared down expectantly.

"What the fuck are you doing? The runt says you won't let him do what I've instructed." He growled at her.

"Oh, well, yeah, uh..."

"Wake up your tark companions and the _rakothûrz hag-shara_. Then get yourself and that fucking leg over to Gazushum." He snapped at her, stabbing a finger in the direction the small Uruk was sitting. The sight of this massive Orc was so aggressively terrifying she almost broke down into tears right there. It got even harder to hold back her fear as he bent down, his face inches from hers and hissed "Or would you rather die slowly of your untreated wound? I've seen it happen too many times, tark. It ain't pretty."

A chocking sound tore from Vicky's throat when he finally looked away. He moved on to Aquila, Kathleen, and Isla, who were beginning to stir due to all the noise.

"_Fûth-tark, snaag, fûsh, snork krumnau-lab_! Get up!" he roared at them.

Aquila and Isla jolted up, Aquila landing her hand in the soot remaining from last night's fire. Kathleen however looked up and started daggers at the leader before sitting herself up and stretching. He snorted at her.

"Wake up and ready yourselves. The sooner you leave the better." And with that he finally walked off towards the trees.

"Jesus Christ, I am so fucking done with this. I want to go home." Vicky murmured with her palms pressing into her eyes.

Isla scooted over to her and wrapped a reassuring arm around her distressed friend.

"Eh, don't mind him, he's just grumpy." Kathleen yawned.

"Awe god dammit!" Aquila held up her hand all black and grey, painted with soot and ash. She looked around, trying to find somewhere to wipe the mess off, seeing nothing she flopped her hand to her lap in defeat. "Alright so what's on the schedule for today, troops?" She stood and stretched out her arms. "Oh that's right," she pushed at her lower back with both hands resulting in a satisfying crack, "Endless trek to god knows where from god knows where. Woohoo!" She waved her arms around in mock excitement. She froze for a moment then her gaze snapped to her feet. She wriggled her bare toes in the soft earth beneath her.

"Fuck."

"AAhhhhhhh!" Kathleen groaned throwing herself backwards onto her blanket once again "We don't have shoes, man!" She cried loudly, sticking her bare feet up into the air, not caring about the strange looks she was getting from the others around the camp. There were two Orcs sitting across the bare fire-pit from them, one leaning against a tree facing the other who was sitting cross legged in the dirt, they both watched as Kathleen righted herself and stood.

"Great, this whole situation just got so much better. Oh chill out, Kathleen." Aquila snapped. She ran her hand over her brow and through her hair, leaving a streak of grey and black behind. When her hand came back down she looked at it as if she had been betrayed it, then to the others with a look of defeat. She let her hand drop without a word.

"Oi, Nûrz-ash." Gimog called. Kathleen turned around and they all looked past her to see the brutish looking Orc grinning at them once again. Or more specifically, grinning at Kathleen.

"So much for talking to boss man!" Kathleen yelled at him "Did you know we don't have shoes?!" She pointed once again to her naked feet.

He rumbled a low laugh at her "Come have a seat with us, woman, before Gothlob hears you shouting."

"Come on!" She snapped to the others, leaving no room for argument.

Isla let her grip on Vicky, who had calmed now, slip as she too stood to follow. "We might as well." She said down to Vicky "Come on." She turned and followed Aquila and Kathleen.

Vicky moved to stand, only managing to get into a crouch before she saw Kufdergaz come back from where ever he had gone, emerging from between the trees holding a rough traveling pack in one clawed hand. He quickly assessed the change in position of the women. He looked at her and she flinched under his gaze. He jerked his thumb towards the smaller Uruk who was sitting in the same spot, now grinding something up on a small flat stone. She understood and stood fully, glancing at her friends who now seemed miles away. They didn't see as she awkwardly stretched out her stiff, sore leg and hobbled over to Gazushum's linen blanket. They all had their back to her now, talking with Gîmog and the big guy, Busn-something. She coughed quietly, trying to gain his attention.

"Sit down." He said without looking at her.

She stalled for a moment, still unsure if she could trust him or any of them for that matter... or even anything at all that came from this place. Could she even trust that this wasn't all just some crazy dream? She sighed and gave up, sitting down at the very edge of the blanket.

Gazushum brushed the ground powder of whatever it was into a small pouch and tucked it into his little trunk then turned to gaze at her with his uncannily orange eyes. She briefly noted that even his hair was shorter than the others was.

"Come closer. Let me see." His voice was quiet and higher pitched than the rumbling growls of the others. It wasn't quite as unsettling.

She looked at him uncertainly, taking a deep breath before inching towards him and extending her leg. Still not satisfied with the large distance he moved closer himself causing Vicky to tense once again. When he reached towards the bloody rip in the calf of her jeans she couldn't help but to pull her leg away quickly.

"Are you sure this is necessary? I mean it can heal on its own, right? It, uh, it can't be that bad, huh?" She laughed nervously.

"Sure it might not be that bad. What if it is?" He relaxed his arms and cocked his head at her "Stupid to die from such a stupid chance. But if it is what you wish..." He turned away from her.

"N-no." Vicky sighed and extended her leg to him again.

He smiled over his shoulder at her. A strangely warm gesture from one such as him, even if he was small, then he turned at set about examining the cut on Vicky's leg again. His expression turned to confusion as he peeled away the slightly loosened bit of fabric from the cut.

"What is this fabric? I've never seen it before."

"It's... well I mean... I don't know. It's popular where I came from... I guess."

"Huh." He grunted under his breath. "Going to have to cut it off below the knee." He looked up to meet her eyes.

Vicky yanked her leg away from him again, and scuttled backwards away from his examination, horror written all over her face.

"MY LEG?" She screamed at him in terror.

Gazushum stared at her with a stricken expression for a moment before bowing his head and sighing, scratching the back of his neck.

"Not your leg, you fool, your pants. They're too bloody, too tight, and in the way."

"Oh." She let out a massive shaky sigh "I think I almost threw up or passed out or died just now."

His head rose and he looked at her, his eyes narrowed in confusion as he tried to decipher what she had just said. "Die? How wo-I would not have allowed you to die." He said in all seriousness.

"Awww shucks." She said trying not to sound cold as she came back to her position she had taken before thinking her leg was about to be chopped off by strange beasts from a fictional world.

"I do not know what that means." He muttered as he pulled a small sharp knife out of his nearby pack. He returned and held the knife out for her to see. "It's very sharp, so no more flinching away, scared bird."

She nodded at him slowly a little unsettled by "scared bird", and he began to slice the fabric from her bloodied calf with surprisingly precise movements. When he started peeling the fabric away from her skin she could feel the bits glued to her with her own blood being pulled and she couldn't help but to squeeze her eyes shut and turn away. She looked to her friends as she felt Gazushum pouring water over her leg to rinse away the blood. Kathleen was sitting by Gîmog seemingly chatting with ease, Aquila was sitting quietly, watching the two talk. Isla however was sitting stiff necked next to the hulking mass of the Berserker, not saying a word.

"You're needing to be sewn."

"What?" She whipped her head around to stare at him wide-eyed "My pants, right? My pants need to be sewn. No way. No way you're getting a needle near my leg, little dude."

He scowled at the name she had called him and turned to his trunk, pulling out a rough-cut piece of fabric and a small bottle of liquid.

"Not this time, scared bird." He un-stoppered the bottle and poured a small amount onto the cloth, eyeballing it carefully. "This'll make it so you don't feel nothin. Like this." He motioned putting the cloth to his mouth then handed it to her, turning once more to his little trunk and this time pulling out a small wrapped parcel before closing the lid.

"So what? Now you're going all _hey, does this napkin smell like chloroform_ on me?" She asked, eyeballing him and the cloth in turn. She wanted so badly to pull her leg away once more. "This is the same stuff you used on Isla isn't it."

The corner of his mouth raised and a small growl came from him. The sight would have been almost comical, cute even, had his pulled back lips not revealed the mouth full of sharp teeth he possessed. "I don't know what you speak of, but yes, I did use it on your friend. Only more of it, enough to knock her out, this amount will only ease the pain. You're going to want to take a nice big breath of that soon, scared bird, or I'll have to help you do it." He unwrapped the cloth from around itself revealing a hooked needle and a ball of thin white twine.

"Oh shit. Oh god. Ah! Uhg god." Vicky fretted she flapped her arm uselessly, as if it would help with her decision, before squealing a little and taking a deep breath from the cloth. It smelled sweet and tickled her nose and lungs, making them feel warm and then strangely cold. The feeling spread through her body quickly. And all of her tension drained away from her. "Woah." She gasped.

Gaz watched her carefully as she grew accustomed to the feeling taking over. He nodded to himself and bent low, preparing to start his work on the deep gash running up the side of her calf.

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_Translations: _Oh man, I know I messed this one up badly. I tried to follow the rules of adjective before what it modifies and such. Eesh.

_Fûth-tark, snaag, fûsh, snork krumnau-lab: _Awaken your weak, slow, worthless, tark asses

_Rakothûrz hag-shara: _Basically an unpleasantly strange lady-man


	6. Chapter 6

Well I'm almost at 200 views, this is great! Thank you for reading! I will try not to disappoint.

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Chapter Six: Stitches and the Boot

Vicky still had her mind though her body was in a haze, and so when she looked to Gazushum holding the cruel looking curved needle so close to her skin her heart began to pound furiously and she squeezed her eyes shut, turning away. She looked back towards her friends, looking for any sort of distraction. She noted that Kûfdergaz was standing above them now. He looked to be agitated. Vicky wondered for a moment if he could be anything else. He dropped a bag between Aquila and Kathleen and stomped off to throw himself down next to the two nameless Orc's sitting near the tree line. He snapped at one of them and the dark red-brown Uruk got up grudgingly and moved to get another fire going. Vicky had a sudden thought.

"What's a... rako hag-shra?" She asked without looking abck at him

"Rakothûrz hag-shara." He said quietly. Then he chuckled to himself. "Means he doesn't understand her; she looks like a man, and he doesn't like it. They only attacked because they thought your friend was a man."

"Haaaa oh my god. She would be so proud."

Aquila's gender was always being confused back home and she took pride in the fact that she could actually pull it off. The short haircut was confusing in itself especially with the longer section near the front giving her a touch of femininity. Her eyes, that could change quickly from intensity to cheery lightness, rested beneath thick, dark, masculine eyebrows, but they had been plucked into shape, once again adding a feminine touch. Her whole demeanor and bearing was gender confusing, but the finishing and most confusing thing to people was how she dressed. Aquila almost always wore button up shirts, accompanied by many different vests, coats, jackets, ties, and the occasional pair of suspenders.

Vicky finally looked back to her medic to see him shaking his head.

"_I_ don't understand you." He was wrapping her leg now in some sort of soft bandage.

"Holy shit! Are you done already?"

He tied off the end of the bandage and cut it with his little knife. "Am now." He moved to put his supplies properly away.

"Yooooo." She dragged her leg up to look closely at his handy work. "Wow... I didn't feel a thing. That was actually really cool. Thank you."

He turned to her with an increasingly familiar incredulous look. "What do you mean 'cool'? Do you feel chilled?" He reached over as if to take her temperature and she leaned back, avoiding his clawed fingers.

"No no! It's kinda... uh, like interesting... in a good way..." She huffed. Things were going to be even more difficult having to always explain the little things she said.

"Oh." He sat back on his feet and cocked his head, looking at her strangely. After a moment he shrugged and turned back to his clean-up.

"No, but it was amazing! Seriously, thank you." She said, wanting to clarify.

He went rigid for a moment and she had a fleeting fear that she had said something wrong, but then he turned to her in awe. His mouth worked silently. "Amazing?" He asked. She nodded uncertainly and a smile spread across his face, showing his sharp, white teeth. He turned back to his trunk so that only half of his face was visible to her. "Amazing." He repeated to himself quietly and she relaxed.

"Ain't nothin to be done, luv's. I tried." Gîmog shrugged dismissively.

"Ugh you're useless." Kathleen hissed, slapping his knee hard, an action that did not bother him in the slightest.

"You lot'll do fine." He sneered at them "Gothlob's gonna set you up pretty with everything you'll need for your little walk."

Kûfdergaz threw a heavy pack down between Aquila and Kathleen to make his presence known, making all three of the girls jump a little.

"You fucking call me that again and I'll tear a chunk from your hide so big you'll be the size'uh your little snaga cousins like you ought to be." Kûfdergaz snapped at Gîmog, eliciting another sly chuckle. The leader snorted at his reaction. "You've got food for three days, and blankets for the nights."

Aquila raised her eyebrows "Wow. Thank y-"

"Don't fucking thank me, tark. Just get your friend soon as she's finished with the runt and get the hell out of my camp." He interrupted her and then he was gone.

"What the hell's his problem?" Kathleen asked.

"Can't be too careful, Nûrz-ash. We ain't survived this long by trusting Whiteskins."

"He said we had food... for three days." Isla stammered, looking up at the berserker sitting beside her warily. "Is it really going to take us that long?"

"Aye, it would take us one, but you little ones'r slow. Lack stamina." Gimog quirked his heavy brow and grinned at them.

"Wow that was bad." Aquila huffed at him, unimpressed.

Eventually, with much complaining on the girls' part and many a menacing scowl from Kûfdergaz, the girls heaved on the pack, swearing to share the load, and started off to the north. Gîmog had attempted to "walk'em to the edge" only to be growled at and told there was "no fucking way" that was happening.

And so they were off on their way to another fictional place in this fictional world, completely unsure of what was before them and, honestly, still questioning what the hell was behind them, as well as how long they would last without proper shoes. In the mean time they had borrowed a knife and torn Isla's sweater into suitable sized pieces of fabric to be tied around their feet using a bit of twine they could barrow from the Orc's and Aquila's purple glossy tie. Aquila and Kathleen swore on finding another group of clawed, long haired companions if they couldn't have this one, while Isla and Vicky worried about how they were going to get home, and if that was even an option.

Isla threw the pack to the ground with a huff of exertion.

"Okay it's someone else's turn to carry this thing." She kneaded at her shoulder with one hand and stretched her spine out with a relieved sigh.

"Can we just take a little break?" Vicky suggested as she came to a stop next to Isla all red in the face. Vicky had begun to fumble on her feet only about an hour after they had started.

Aquila jogged back towards them awkwardly, trying to keep her makeshift feet covers from falling off. All four of them had already been forced to stop multiple times to retie whatever it was keeping the fabric from falling off from around their ankles. Aquila and Kathleen had sped up ahead as soon as they had both taken their turns with the heavy pack and had been excitedly talking about the forest and how it was just like any forest back home. Kathleen turned and started lazily walking back towards the group as well.

Aquila laughed "We can't go no further till we've had a breatha" she said in a gruff voice, quoting from an Uruk in her favourite movie.

"Ugh how much further do we have to go?" Vicky said, ignoring Aquila and sitting herself down on the densely rooted ground. The sun was trying to push its way through the thick canopy, bathing all beneath in a rich, green glow. The ground was damp from some past rainfall and with the lack of sun the air smelled of the decomposition of fallen leaves. It was not an unpleasant smell in the least; in fact it was oddly refreshing.

Aquila looked around them then up into the branches of the surrounding trees before answering Vicky. "I have no idea" she breathed "I don't even know if we're going in the right direction."

"Well the sun generally sets in the west and rises in the east as a rule. We could use that if we could see the sun! Looks like it's pretty much noon anyway though." Isla chirped.

Aquila made a thoughtful noise in her throat, retuning her attention to the nearby trees, focusing on the ones with the lowest and thickest bows. "I'm going to pull a Bilbo-in-Mirkwood." Aquila said excitedly, as she walked towards a tree she thought was suitable to climb and started untying her 'shoes'.

"Have fun." Kathleen called to her. She was standing next to Isla now as Aquila started pulling herself up onto the first branch.

"I am so fucking thirsty. Did angry Orc give us beverages?" Vicky asked no one in particular from her place on the ground. She was pillowing her face in her arms. None of them had ever really been at all for physical activity. As soon as P.E. wasn't a mandatory class they all took full advantage of their own laziness. Vicky had the worst of it however because dehydration hit her hard and fast whenever she took part in a run or in this case a seemingly endless walk.

"I don't know." Isla admitted "Let's see what supplies for three days journey is to an Orc." She squatted down and untied the laces holding the flap of the pack down. She pulled out four linen blankets, not like the nice fur ones they had slept on the night before. She placed them behind her. Next she removed and untied a small parcel revealing a bundle of small tough buns, they were of a darker colour than one would expect, and they smelled strange. She retied the package and placed it next to the blankets. There was another similar package instead holding many pieces of dried meat, and a water skin in the pack. She put the blankets back in and handed the skin to Vicky who immediately un-stoppered it and brought it to her mouth desperately.

"Woah, woah, no!" Kathleen lurched forward and snatched the skin from Vicky's hands just as she started taking deep long swallows. She sloshed the water around, testing its volume before casting a glare in Vicky's direction. "Come on, man! We only have this until we get there!"

"Sorry!" Vicky cried grudgingly throwing her hands up in a huff.

"Yeah, we're going to have to be careful with our food as well. No binge eating." Isla looked up at Kathleen pointedly.

Aquila was reaching the top of the tree and when her head broke through the canopy a soft cool breeze hit her and she sighed, closing her eyes and taking in deep slow breaths of fresh air. The fringe of hair that hung over the left side of her forehead and eye was pushed back. She clung to the stump of the tree tightly with her knees and raised her hands onto the air above her head. She was surrounded by the sounds of creaking branches and rustling leaves. She felt so free. Then she was reminded of the task at hand when she heard a small argument break out below her.

"What are you trying to say?"

"Can I, uh, have like one more drink though?"

"No, Vicky! Isla?"

"Well I don't know, dude. I was just saying!"

The short haired girl sighed, grabbed back onto her previous holds and opened her dark eyes to slowly look around. She could see the edge of the forest not too far off. They could probably reach it in under an hour. The sun was hot on the back of her neck. It must have been earlier than they thought for the sun was still moving up to rest in its noon position, high above. Alright so she was facing the west. Aquila looked to the north seeing the forest curve out in a massive L. Kûfdergaz was right about skirting the edge.

"More walking." She sighed and closed her eyes once more, only for a moment to briefly savour the feeling of being up so high with the sun at her back and the wind on her face, a sturdy branch covered in coarse bark beneath her naked feet. Her eyes opened and she shifted to start making her way down, just then something caught her eye on the horizon. There was a glinting coming over some far off rise, a shining, almost blinding, white glare. Aquila squinted towards it, noting the low cloud of dust that was behind it, seemingly following it. Horses, She realized. The sun was glistening off of the polished armor of mounted men. There were maybe fifteen or twenty of them from what she could tell, coming straight towards the forest, and straight towards their position.

"Balls." Aquila cursed under her breath. She started making her way down the tree as quickly as she could. "Guys!" She called to her friends.

"What?" Kathleen snapped up to her, still agitated by the previous argument.

Aquila swung down from one of the lower branches, landing in a crouch. "Guys, we have to go." She dusted off her hands and walked towards her startled friends purposefully.

"Why?" Isla asked. She pushed a stray dread behind her ear, eyebrows drawn together in confusion.

"There are riders coming in our direction." Aquila answered. She threw the contents back into the pack and tied the cords then hefted it up onto her back.

"Wait, where are we going to?" Kathleen interjected, in the process of pulling Vicky up.

Aquila paused for a moment, fussing her lower lip between her teeth. "Uh... I don't know actually. They're coming directly from where we need to be going."

"We can't know if they're a threat or not." Isla added.

"Oh shit." Kathleen exclaimed loudly "They could be harmless Rohirrim or Orc hunters or fucking elves or Dunlander's or anything!"

"I don't think Men from Dunland where any kind of armor other than leather." Aquila reassured matter of factly. "These riders where wearing plate or mail or... something. And I can't see why elves would be in such a hurry to get anywhere at all."

"So what," Vicky chimed in "Orc hunters or Roh-ram dudes?"

"Rohirrim." Aquila corrected "Yeah. Which raises another problem."

"Because if they're Rohan guys they might help us get there, but if they're Orc hunters..." Isla trailed off.

"We can't let them find the group that helped us." Kathleen finished.

"Great." Vicky huffed. "Can I at least have a drink before we start walking again?"

"We have to hurry to reach them before they get to the forest." Aquila answered. "I'm afraid we won't be walking, Vicky."

"Oh fucking Christ." Vicky groaned.

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If you're liking the story or even if you have some constructive criticism, please throw me a review! They help to keep me motivated to do more. Thank's for reading :)


	7. Chapter 7

Merry Christmas everyone and thank you fro reading!

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Chapter Seven: Of Horses and Men

Isla was a better runner than the others. She had always been the only one to really bother with working out. None of them were in peak physical condition, but none of them were unhealthy either. Aquila was always trying to gain weight in fact. Though she remained thin and spindly, which added to her masculinity, no matter how much or how frequent she ate. She blamed this on the insanely fast metabolisms of her parents who had remained the same weight since the end of puberty. And so Isla broke through the edge of the forest first, followed by Kathleen, then Aquila carrying the heavy pack, and finally Vicky, all red in the face and panting. It had been a strenuous bolt but they had made it before the riders had. They could see them now not too far off. The girls settled uneasily and Aquila threw the pack down with a thud.

"What do we do when they get here?" Isla muttered to Aquila, who had taken a position in front of the others, back straight and shoulders squared.

"I don't know." Aquila shook her head, "Either we ask for their help or we try and steer them away from the Uruk-hai."

They could hear the sounds of hooves now and a man's voice sounded over it, alerting the rest of the men to the four figures standing at the edge of the trees.

"Shit, here they come."

There were about fifteen of them as Aquila had guessed and as they grew nearer their horses slowed, eventually coming to a stop a stone's throw away. It was clear that they were not riders of Rohan at all. Their armor had no distinct familiarity ranging from one suit to the next, save that they all bore a symbol of a gleaming black sword somewhere on their person. They lacked the intricately detailed leather work and horse hair add-ons that the Rohirrim possessed. That is of course if Aquila and Kathleen's research had been at all worth it. It was all they had to go off of at the moment. There was a moment of silence that stretched uncomfortably between them. Fifteen faces, some young, some old, gruff or soft, bearded or shaven, dark or fair haired, stared at four just as diverse faces. One man rode forward. He must have been the leader of the group. His copper hair hung down just long enough to brush at his shoulders and his face was framed by a short red beard.

"You there!" He shouted to them.

"Who, us?" Kathleen said under her breath and not loud enough for him to hear. Perhaps an inappropriate time for joking, but such was Kathleen's way. Isla gave a short laugh and Aquila's mouth quirked up at the corner as she looked to the man in front of them.

"What brings you this far north?"

Aquila took a deep breath. Socializing really wasn't her thing. It was sort of like physical activity actually, none of them really liked it.

"I might ask you the same thing." She said with as much conviction as she could muster.

His eyes narrowed and moved behind her to briefly flick over each of her friends. There was another stretch of silence. Clearly this man was not versed in what to do if he were to run into anyone on whatever possibly blood filled errand he was on. The four girls must have looked truly outrageous to these onlookers; lacking proper shoes and instead wearing just clumsy looking fabric, sitting in their dirty, litteraly-out-of-this-world clothing, and panting.

"Our business is none of yours." Another man spoke as he rode forward to backup his silent comrade. "I have never before seen the likes of you. From where do you come?"

"You wouldn't know of it If I told you, rider." Aquila called to him.

"You wouldn't happen to be looking for Orc's would you?" Kathleen stepped in. Both men looked rather taken aback at her sudden question and Aquila rolled her eyes at her friends spastic question.

"A-and if we are?" The first man stammered "What do you care what happens to such beasts?"

"So you are then?" Aquila continued on with Kathleen's line of conversation.

"We never said-" The second man spoke now.

"Do you fight for the king? Does he know of this?" Aquila asked, hoping it was even a threat to them; she was unsure how the justice system worked around here.

"We fight for the people. It is for their sake we do what we must." The copper haired man shouted at them.

"Indeed." Aquila muttered. "The symbol," She pointed to the dark gleaming sword etched into his breastplate. "What does it mean?"

The man didn't have to look down. He raised his chin at the question "It is the symbol of our organization. We are the Kalina Ohtar." The copper haired man answered proudly with a smooth accent on the assumedly Elvish words.

"So you are Orc hunters." There was another silence. "Good." Aquila said loudly, smiling slyly. A plan had just come to her. "I know the location of a particularly nasty bunch of them."

"What are you doing?" Isla hissed at her, not loud enough for the men to hear. Aquila waved her off dismissively.

"Where are these beasts that you speak of?" The second man spoke once again, his horse took a few steps closer. "We would be rid of them as soon as possible."

"Aquila, what-" Kathleen tried to say.

"North west of here, near the opposite edge of the forest. Terrible thieving bastards." Aquila said with as much malice towards the imaginary group of Orc's as she could possibly throw at these men. "You should hurry and put an end to their treacherous lives before they can cause any more pain and sorrow."

The men looked at her with strange expressions of determination and confusion. "Well... if that is so, we would be off. I suggest you hurry and get to where you're going as well. It is not safe for... young... persons to travel these lands alone." The copper haired man stated with an air of uncertainty, looking them over once more. He motioned to his men that they would once again begin traveling. There was a clatter of steel plates and the sounding of hooves and they had all moved off, galloping along the tree line towards the north, except for the second man, who rode up to them, bringing his horse close enough to touch. They could feel the heat radiating off of the creatures side. The horse snorted uneasily and whinnied weakly, bucking its head.

"It was a great deed to the race of men, what you just did and I thank you again. We will slay these beasts that have plagued us for so many years. It is time that this earth be rid of them. Thank you." He said down to them. They exchanged brief nods before he kicked his horse into a gallop and rode off to follow his comrades.

"Holy jeez." Aquila fell to her knees and took a couple deep breaths.

"What did you do?" Vicky asked quietly.

"She sent them in the wrong direction." Isla answered "That is what you did wasn't it?"

Aquila nodded in affirmation without turning to look at them. She let out a great sigh and waved a hand around beckoning for someone to help her stand. Kathleen and Isla moved to her side and pulled her up unceremoniously by the arms. Aquila turned around and swallowed hard, a look of determination taking over her features.

"We have to go back." She stated. "We have to warn them that Orc hunters are nearby."

"What?" Vicky protested "We came all this way just to go crawling back in? Those horse dudes will probably give up right away anyway!"

"We can't be sure, Vicky." Kathleen said firmly. "I agree with Aquila."

"No! No, no. You dicks only want to go back so that you can obsess over the giant, sharp, hairy..." Vicky angrily struggled with herself for a moment moving her hands around, trying to form words "Fricken Orc's out of your fan-fictions!"

"Okay but, Vicky." It was Isla speaking in a soft voice now "What would we do surrounded by men? It's not like back home... well... maybe... Women are going to be treated more like property here and we'll never be even close to accepted anyway."

"Oh great, now you're on their side."

"Come on, friend!" Aquila said with forced cheer, hefting the pack back on. She was breathing heavily. "Who needs men anyway? Men are boring. Nothing can beat a giant crude asshat with fangs and claws."

"Yeah!" Agreed Kathleen "Besides, don't try and pretend you didn't enjoy those stories as well." She teased.

Vicky sighed as the other three started laughing lightly. There was no fighting it, and they all disappeared back into the edge of the forest, its branches swallowing them once again. The sun still hung high in the sky, as an onlooker to their journey once again.

"Fucking fantastic." Aquila stood in the middle of the clearing next to the dead, grey fire pit. Kathleen fell to the ground and emitted such a cry of frustration the very trees seemed to flinch into themselves. Isla removed her hands from her ears and spoke.

"Was that necessary?" She asked. The three girls converged in to the middle all standing around Aquila and the empty fire pit. Vicky stood with her arms crossed, looking very unimpressed with everyone else's judgment.

"Now what?" Isla said quietly. The sun was now far in the west and the already dim clearing was growing uncomfortably dark.

"Shit, well we can't make it anywhere before dark now." Aquila spun around, taking in the clearing, her breathing was again beginning to speed up as panic rose in her chest. "I think we'll-"

"Fucking no!" Vicky snapped. "I do not want to stay here again!"

"We don't really have any choice, Vicky." Aquila said coolly. "We'll stay here tonight and then..." Aquila wasn't facing them anymore. They didn't see her face crumple in on itself in her own frustration. They did see her hand go up to her brow, saw her drop to her knees, and heard her shuddering sigh.

Kathleen shot up from her own kneeling position and rushed over. "Are you okay?" She asked in a hushed voice.

"I'm just tired. I actually want to go home, Kathleen. I want my bed and my TV." Aquila took one last deep breath to calm herself. A deep quiet filled the clearing after her short outburst. Isla came over and put a hand on her back as she began to stand. Halfway up Aquila froze and whipped her head to the side, starring into the dark space between the trees.

"Someone's here."

They saw the eyes first, shining a very bright, sharp gold, they sliced through the darkness as he came, glowing almost. Then as the eyes slowly drew closer the heavy brow became visible. His skin was almost black and seemingly blended into the darkness surrounding him. His coarse black hair was drawn into numerous thin braids covering his head and weaving in and out of one another. There was a perfectly white bone pierced through the top of one pointed ear. He wasn't wearing a shirt, but a fitted leather vest, bearing his heavily muscled arms. He focused his intense, contrasting eyes on Aquila and the corner of his mouth, where a single fang stood out from between his lips, twitched slightly as if a smile was hiding just beneath the surface.

"Very good, little one." His voice was deep and smooth, it flowed over them, echoing through the clearing like thunder, and their fear was intensified.

"Oi!" They all whipped around and the tense shoulders and breaths that they were not aware they were holding released when they laid eyes on the unnaturally broad shoulders and brutal face of Gîmogrûz. "This the reason you fuckin took off, you git?" He chuckled to the other Orc and lumbered over to the girls in the center of the clearing, throwing a heavy hand onto Isla and Kathleen's shoulders. He laughed "You sneaky bastard. So how did your day go, girlies?" He leered at them.

"WHAT THE HELL GÎMOGRÛZ!" Kathleen shouted and threw an elbow into his hard muscled stomach. A small oof was all she got out of him.

Dhûrum moved completely out of the shadows and snorted at Gîmog, still managing to make even that ungraceful noise seem like dark chocolate to their ears.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter Eight: The Other Side of Lost

Angus hadn't slept that night, just as was planned. He had dark circles under his eyes and his ever messy hair was sticking out in all directions. He sat at his desk with Vicky's Ipad on one side and a large pile of fan fiction on the other. Annika and Katlyn had gone to their classes in the morning and he had continued searching all throughout the day only taking breaks to grab food or use the washroom. It was getting late now, Katlyn and Annika should be home soon, he thought.

Sure enough the door soon opened and the two came in, dropping their books off in a disorganized heap on the kitchen table.

"Hellooooo." he called out to them without turning as they came to enter his room.

"What did'ya find?" Annika skipped over to his side excitedly, followed by Katlyn.

"I discovered that five teabags of Earl Grey in one cup tastes like a crack addicts piss and coffee would have probably been a smarter choice anyway, but it gets the job done." He spun around in his chair to face them. Angus was one to constantly pull all nighters, so this wasn't really anything new except for the fact that concentration was necessary in these particular circumstances. Hence the crack addict-piss tea.

"Great. Anything else? Something useful, something we need to know?" Katlyn came to kneel on the floor facing Angus. She looked past him to the bright screen expectantly. The screen was currently the only thing brightening the dark room and it cast strange shadows upon the walls. Angus sighed, letting his head fall back to rest against the top of his chair.

"Yeaah. Yeah, I'm getting there, calm down." He sighed again and turned his chair slightly to grab the pile of papers. "Okay look," He held out the papers for the two girls to look at. "There are a bunch of different stories in here, and the first page of each has the names of people that have read them. Most only have Aquila's name, 'cause she's just a little obsessive about these things."

Annika snorted a short laugh "Yeah, just a little."

"Shhhh shut up! Okay but there is one that they all read. Remember when Aquila and Kat were trying to get us to read it? The one with the Orc's, I mean they all had Orc's but this one seemed especially long. They were all really excited about it."

"I read like the first chapter, but I can't really focus on reading things like that." Katlyn confirmed.

"Yeah, same."

"Okay, okay, okay! I found it on Vicky's Ipad along with other things. I mean what the fuck! I thought Vicky was- nevermind! Anyway it's the thing that connects them. The only for sure thing for now. I think we should read it, I mean I already did last night, and I found the Authors page online, she writes under a pen-name, and I think we should look there too."

The two girls looked at him uncertainly for a moment, Katlyn's mouth tilted up in thought.

"Cooooool, uhhm. I don't know though, man. This happened because of stories?" Annika said, pulling her shoulders up in a shrug.

"It just doesn't seem very likely." Katlyn agreed. "Is there anything else?"

"Oh Pfffff!" Angus threw the papers up over Annika and Katlyn's heads, raining pages down on them. "What the shit, dude! You try and find something better!"

"Angus! What the hell?" Annika exclaimed.

"Ugh fine." Katlyn said calmly, standing slowly. "Give us the name of the author, me and Annika will look into it, might as well."

"What? Nohohohoooo" Annika sobbed.

"In the mean time" Katlyn continued, ignoring Annika "You sleep."

"Dude, fuck sleep, I can't sleep! I have to-"

"Get into bed, Angus! Right now." Katlyn's usually friendly, soft face turned hard when she snapped at him and he looked a little taken aback for a moment before relaxing and standing.

"Jesus Christ, Katlyn, if you were a guy I'd let you do so many dirty things to me." He said to her with a wide-eyed expression before turning his back to them and walking towards his bed, throwing himself down without grace. "Okay now go away. Love yooooooouuuu." He called to them in a sing song voice.

"Uh, Angus?" Annika squeaked.

"The Authors name is GeekerBreeker, all one word." Angus muttered from his bed.

Katlyn nodded to him, though he couldn't see and the two girls left the room, hearing Angus yawn loudly and mutter something about crack piss before they closed the door.

"Well... Can we make a pillow fort?"

"What?" Katlyn looked at the small girl incredulously.

"If we're going to read all of this stuff we should make a pillow fort or something." Annika shrugged.

"Yeah, alright." Katlyn giggled "You go get your pillows and laptop and I'll go get mine."

~Hours later in a blanket fort like no other~

"Whyyyyyyy?" Annika practically threw her computer aside as she rolled onto her stomach and buried her face into a pillow. "Why does this person have so many stories?" Her voice was muffled by the pillow and barley understandable.

"Oh shush, I've read at least twice as many as you, Annika. They're not that bad." Katlyn muttered as she continued to read from the screen of her own laptop. She was propped up against the side of the couch.

Annika lifted her head from the pillow and turned to look at her roommate. "I've just never liked the whole Orc thing. I don't get what Aquila and Kathleen saw in it!"

Katlyn looked up with finality "Yeah well it's this or studying. Come on, the sooner we get this done the better, and the sooner we can look into other options. Just remember that we're still trying to find a clue about the others. I'm going to read one more, and then we can make dinner."

"Can I start now?" Annika asked hopefully, pushing herself up with her hands.

Katlyn rolled her eyes. "Fine."

"Wooh!" Annika shot up and rushed to the kitchen, starting to gather ingredients for whatever it was she wanted to procrastinate with by making.

Katlyn started scrolling through the list of fan fictions that the Pen name GeekerBreeker had written, skimming past the ones she had already read. The sounds of various clanking dishware now filled the apartment. Luckily most of the stories were relatively short. One title caught her eye and she began skimming through the brief summary.

"Huh." She muttered to herself. She clicked the title and started reading; her eyes grew wider with every sentence and her breath quickened. "Oh god. Annika!"

"What?" Annika stopped what she was doing, bottle of cooking oil in hand, and looked to see Katlyn's shocked expression.

"Annika, Annika you need to come here and read this!"

Annika dropped everything and rushed over. She took the laptop from Katlyn's hands and begun to read for herself. She had a very similar reaction to Katlyn. Her curious expression changing, eyes growing wide, her mouth hung open and her breath caught in her throat. The two girls looked at each other in disbelieving awe. No words were needed; they both shot up and ran to Angus's door, throwing it open violently and it thudded against the wall.

"Angus!" They both cried. His mostly unconscious response kind of ruined the high energy feel of the current situation. Annika jumped onto his bed and started slapping at his face frantically.

"Angus, wake up! Angus!" She slapped him particularly hard and he bolted up right.

"What the fuck? What?!" He shouted at her.

"Angus!" Katlyn yelled "There's a story! Angus, there's a story about them. GeekerBreeker wrote the disappearance of Aquila, Vicky, Isla, and Kathleen."

Angus blinked a few times then rubbed one eye roughly before staring at them with still bleary eyes. "What?" He asked again.

Annika made and exasperated noise and bolted to grab Katlyn's computer, leaping from his bed. When she returned, slightly out of breath, both from the shock of the situation and the sudden sprint, she started reading out the first passage from the story.

"Aquila and Kathleen stood facing each other across the small coffee table, strewn with various books, papers, writing utensils and long forgotten mugs. Their shoulders were squared; Aquila's arms crossed and a stern look on her face. She rose and accusatory finger at the other girl, fixing her with a sideways glare."

"See?" Katlyn squeaked.

"Bless my soul, 'tis quite a pickle we've gotten ourselves into isn't it?" He muttered under his breath in a strange English accent. His eyes cleared now as an idea dawned on him. He threw his legs over the side of his mattress and rushed to his computer, throwing himself down in his chair and twirling into position. He swept his messy hair over and away from his eyes carelessly before he began typing furiously at his key board.

"What are you doing?" Annika cried.

"We have to find this author." Angus answered sharply "It's the only way we can know how this is happening. Turns out my hours spent on this computer are finally becoming of use." He tapped the top of his monitor affectionately then he turned to the girls and fixed them with a serious look. "I know a guy, who knows a guy. He's a bit of a nut job, but he can find us our mysterious, magical writer."

"What are we supposed to do if we find her?" Katlyn asked quietly.

"No idea. But it's a start, and that's all we've got."


	9. Chapter 9

Hey look, another chapter. Wooh.

Thank you for putting up with my bad writing if you are :)

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Chapter Nine: A long Dark Path

They had started walking once again just after their little reunion. Gîmog had taken the pack from Aquila's shoulders and took up the rear of the line. The dark Uruk had grumbled that they couldn't know how long it would be before they reached the others, but not in so many words. He walked at the front, the girls in between the two Uruks in the order: Aquila, Vicky, Kathleen, and finally Isla. The massive Uruk now leading them was a mystery. There had been no mention of his name and none of them had seen him during their time in the camp. This made them uneasy, as if he were some unproven enemy. The sun had moved farther and farther below some far off, unseen horizon, leaving them in total blackness. The Orc's had no trouble seeing and staying upright on the lightless walk. Meanwhile the girls were constantly tripping over hidden roots, stones and even each other's feet. The still air was constantly perforated by the sounds of Kathleen and Vicky's sudden, startled screams, whimpers and squeaks as they stumbled. Finally Gîmog had had enough and he called for the group to stop.

"Fuckin tired of your tark eyes." He snarled. Gîmog ripped off the pack and threw it down at his feet before stomping loudly off into the bushes. The dark Orc huffed indignantly.

"Well sorry for not being _fighting Uruk-hai_." Kathleen said defensively.

"He is not Uruk-hai." The dark Uruk rumbled softly. He had turned towards them when Gîmogrûz had decided to take a bush whacking break. It sent shivers up Aquila's spine to be standing so close to him. He was too god damn quiet, even his breathing was difficult to make out. It was just a low humming growl in the quiet of the forest. He just seemed so unnatural for an Uruk, which was saying something seeing as how unnatural they were as a race already. Isla, Vicky, and Kathleen had turned to the sound of his voice, but Aquila did not dare. The other girls could see that even in this darkness his bright eyes stood out against his dark face.

"What does that even mean?" Vicky asked uncertainly. The Uruk's eyes shot up, past their heads, and their confused faces quickly whipped back around when the sound of a branch being snapped and ripped from its tree resonated through the quiet. Then came Gîmog, trudging back out from where he had stomped a path before. He was holding a branch that had been snapped in half to about the length of one of the girls arms, and he was unceremoniously ripping the excess twigs off of it. Once done he dropped to one knee in front of the bag and tossed the branch to the ground. They watched as he removed one of the linen blankets from the pack and put the corner between his sharp teeth, ripping a long strip from it.

"What are you doing?" Isla asked quietly.

Gîmog ignored her question. He pulled a large leather flask from his hip and un-stoppered it, pouring some of its strong smelling contents over the strip of fabric and working it around so that its whole length was covered.

"Oi, 'ave you got a-"

The Uruk behind Aquila was apparently already ahead of Gîmog and tossed him something small. Gîmog caught it, much to their surprise because they couldn't even see it. He picked up the branch and started winding the fabric around its tip.

"Oh." Aquila breathed, understanding. The dark Orc exhaled sharply through his nose behind her, almost as if he was chuckling at her. She felt his breath on the back of her head and flinched into herself.

There was a scraping sound and a spark briefly lit Gîmogrûz's face. The two girls closest flinched away from the sudden unsettling sight of his brutal visage. There was another spark, and another, and then there was a whoosh as the torch came violently to life. All four girls covered their eyes instinctually as a warm orange light bathed the trees all around them. Aquila could hear the Uruk behind her turn away with a quiet grunt. Gîmogrûz rose with a sneer, made all the more frightful by the light exaggerating every rough couture of his face.

"'ere hold this." He held the torch out to Isla, who looked at it uncertainly. She reached out to grab it but snatched her hand back, afraid of the fire.

"Take your fucking light, woman!" He snapped at her. She squeaked but reached out quickly and took the torch from him. He bent down and tossed the pack on over his shoulder, snatched the torch back from Isla, and tossed the flint past Aquila's head to the other Uruk. "Now you've got your light, let's fucking move. No more falling on your asses." He growled at them.

The girls all slowly turned to face forward. Their path was now lit dimly in the orange light, but their own shadows as well as the twisted ones cast by the trees danced all around them, flickering dizzyingly. It was a little disturbing and the girls couldn't decide if the light was an improvement or if it simply made things worse. However they tried their best to stay on their feet even if it was only as to not be yelled at again. Speaking of feet...

"My feet hurt." Vicky mumbled.

"I'm pretty sure mine are literally bleeding." Aquila turned her head to say to Vicky over her shoulder.

"They're not." Aquila looked forward again at the sound of the Uruk's uncomfortably deep voice. "Would smell it."

"Wonderful." Aquila said under her breath.

"I think that our feet would be hurting even if we had real shoes." Isla called from the back of the line. "I don't think we've ever walked so much."

Gîmog snorted a laugh. "Weak tark's. An Orc woman could run to the mountain of fire and back without rest."

"Well then how about _you_ go do that then?" Kathleen snapped at him over her shoulder. Gîmog chcukled.

The rest of the walk was kept in relative silence. Kathleen and Isla could feel Gîmog's intrusive eyes on them the whole way and it made their skin crawl. It was no lie that Gîmog was certainly enjoying his place at the back of the line and his enjoyment was written, startlingly clear, all over his face if anyone was brave enough to look.

Aquila had nothing else to look at but the Uruk in front of her. His steps were placed carefully, and with swift precision, avoiding all roots and twigs, keeping his foot-falls silent. He did it with an ease that told her it was something he was quite practiced in. Her eyes moved up from his leather clad feet and stalled a moment on the smooth rocking of his hips before jerking away, a little appalled, and getting caught up on his long braided hair. It swung with every step and came down almost to the bottom of his leather vest. Back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, they moved. It was a calming motion, and Aquila couldn't help but become hypnotized by it. Her hand started moving towards them, without her permission, and without noticing her fingers inched forwards through the air.

Aquila didn't notice when he started sniffing at the air, like a dog or a cat would. She certainly didn't see his hand shoot up from his side and signal for them to stop. She did not expect to slam into his hard back, having her wits quickly return to her only to realize that her hand had accidently slid itself up the back of his vest.

The Orc went rigid and she felt the muscles of his back tense under her palm. A very low, barely audible growl came from his chest and she felt it vibrate through him. She yanked her hand out and jumped back, horrified with herself, she felt her heart speed up and he face grow hot. There was a moment where he didn't move at all. Then she saw his shoulders relax at the removal of her hand and he glanced at her over his shoulder. She couldn't distinguish the expression being portrayed across his face.

"I'm sorry. I am so sorry, it was an accident I swear-" Aquila's expression was fearful. She threw her hands up defensively and started backing up away from him as she spoke. Vicky gave a little strangled cry when Aquila backed into her and tripped, forcing her to catch the horrified girl under the arms to keep her from toppling over. "I'm sorry!" Aquila cried once more as she stood herself back up and covered her face with her hands.

"What just happened?" Isla whispered to Kathleen, who shrugged. They both heard Gîmog laugh under his breath.

The other Orc grunted, a sound he seemed to favour, and turned to face forward, once more sniffing at the air.

Vicky whispered inquisitively to Aquila, who just shook her head in her hands.

"Can smell the others." He rumbled.

"Why the fuck are we stopping?" Gîmog asked from the back.

"Kûfdergaz will be angry." He met eyes with Gîmogrûz pointedly.

"Heh." Gîmog chuckled and lumbered up past the girls to stand next to his comrade. "Don't worry." He smacked the Uruk on the back eliciting another growl. "I'll protect you from Gothlob."

The two Orc's broke the cover of the trees first. Kûfdergaz had moved the group to another clearing and they had already done the set up that was necessary. When the leader laid eyes on his two missing men, his lip curled up into a snarl.

"Where the fuck have you two been?" He stormed over to where they had entered, and then froze when he saw the four girls emerge from behind them. His face went slack for only a moment before resuming its natural state. "You brought the whiteskin bitches back?" He hissed at them.

"Nah, boss, they came to us." Gîmog answered, not at all affected by Kûfdergaz's ire. "Just couldn't stay away. Isn't that right, pretties?" He gave the women a crooked smile over one shoulder.

"Knew they wouldn't last long alone. Waited." The other said clearly.

"We came to warn you." Kathleen interrupted. Kûf fixed her with a glare and shouldered past Gîmog to stand in front of her.

"Warn us of what?" He huffed at her, his furious face bent down, inches from her unflinching one.

"Kalina Ohtar." Aquila answered for her, repeating the name that the horseman had called himself and his riders. Kûf snapped his attention to Aquila so fast it looked painful and slowly straightened up. "We ran into a group of riders looking for a group of Orcs." She stammered as Kûfdergaz drew closer. "We sent them to the opposite side of the forest. W-we sent them away from you, but-but we needed to warn you." He was standing so close now. Aquila couldn't look him in the face.

"Smelled horse on 'em." The dark one volunteered without turning.

Kûfdergaz looked towards him and Aquila released a shuddering breath with his gaze lifted from her.

There was a long quite moment before Kûfdergaz sighed and turned back towards the women. His eye bore into them one at a time as he gritted his jaw. He growled in finality and relaxed an increment, raising his chin.

"Fine. What do you want of us?" Kûfdergaz asked them, grudgingly.

"We want to stay." Kathleen answered without hesitation. She stepped forward and his eyes flashed towards her.

"No."

"Why not?" Aquila stepped forward to stand with her friend.

He growled at the both of them. "I said no. Our kind do not mix."

Gîmog turned and patted Kûfdergaz firmly on the back. "Come on, boss. They might be fun. I can't be the only one gettin tired a this bunch."

"Keep your stinking paws off of me, scum." Kûfdergaz roared.

"Hey! Come on! If you don't let us stay what the hell are we supposed to do huh? We don't belong with those kinds of people." Kathleen said pleadingly.

"I do not care. You may have whatever you want from us. But you cannot stay."

"What would we even take? None of your shit would fit us and we would never survive on our own anyway!" Aquila was beginning to raise her voice.

"Excuse me." Isla put a hand on both Aquila and Kathleen's shoulders, making them simmer down, and parting them so she could get though. "Kûfdergaz, there's really no point in fighting." He was absolutely fuming now. "These two are the most stubborn pains in the ass I've ever known and if you don't let us stay they'll probably make us follow you wherever you go anyways." Isla stated matter of factly with a shrug.

The quite one moved to Kûfdergaz side and leaned in to whisper something in his ear. Kûfdergaz huffed. "Fine. You may stay. But you'll pull your own weight. If you don't we'll kick you aside and you ain't never gonna see us again. This life style aint easy and you only get one chance."

The women smiled brightly and started sprouting _thank you'_s and _you wont regret it._

"We gave you more than we have to spare at the moment anyway." He grumbled and turned back to the two Orcs. "You two are in charge of them for now."

A cheeky grin spread over Gîmog's face."Whatever you say, boss." Gîmog purred. Kûfdergaz shot him a disgusted warning look before walking off and leaving them be.

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By the way Kalina Ohtar means Warriors of light in my story and really badly put together, choppy Elvish. But hey, I tried.


	10. Chapter 10

Two Characters that have been 'seen' but not really _seen_ yet, coming into play. Wooh!

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Chapter Ten: Thick Air In Their Clear Space

They had been at the new camp for hours before the four white skins returned with Gîmogrûz and Dhûrum. Kûfdergaz had been furious. It was always entertaining when Gîmog got on the leaders bad side, even if nothing ever came of it.

Snaagbûrz sat on the edge of the camp. Once he had finished building the fire pit in the center, filled and lit it, as was his job, he had sat himself down and started clearing out his space. He meticulously swept any stone, twig, or acorn from his chosen area. If there were stones embedded in the earth, protruding, he would pick them out with ruddy brown, clawed fingers, and smooth the ground over evenly.

However his attention was now focused on the returning group. Kûfdergaz has ceased his yelling and now seemed to be talking with the tark females. Snaagbûrz leaned back against the trunk of a tree, seated between the roots as he watched their conversation with a bored expression. There was a brief argument that was resolved quickly with a quick nod from the leader and the tarks, being led by Dhûrum and Gîmog, started making their way across camp towards the fire. Gîmog spotted him from a ways off and grinned at him deviously. To which the seated Uruk responded with a warning curl of his lip.

As he passed, Gîmog purposefully kicked a shower of gravel and sticks into Snaagbûrz's tidied area with a massive, leather clad foot. Snaagbûrz growled and shot up, standing towards his assailant. Gîmog took a moment to look amused by the offered challenge. He stopped and turned to square up to the other Orc. Dhûrum and the four women stopped as well and turned to watch.

Snaagbûrz stood about two inches taller than Gîmog's hunched form, though even his broad shoulders and thick arms were no match for Gîmog's hulking mass.

"Feeling brave today, are we?" Gîmog leered at him. Snaagbûrz's face was contorted in pent up fury as his brown and yellow eyes locked with Gîmog's red ones. Then Gîmog's face changed to surprise and his head suddenly shot backwards followed by his massive body toppling over backwards. Snaagbûrz's face gave way to surprise as well right before his opponent was dragged back by the hair and thrown to the ground by one of the white skins. Snaagbûrz starred at her for a moment in shock before his face hardened again. He looked over the female briefly. She had dark, chin length hair that framed her plump face, and even though her features were soft, her expression was not. Her hard brown eyes flared under her light brow. Gîmog was up on his feet again before anyone had time to properly react. Only now he rounded on her instead.

"What the fuck d'you think you're doing, bitch?" He roared at her, his face lurching forwards until it was just inches from hers.

"What the fuck do you think you're doing?" She screamed right back at him, jabbing his chest with a hard finger. He grabbed at the offered digit and engulfed her whole fist in his own.

"This was none'a your fucking business, girl." He began to squeeze. Kathleen emitted a short audible intake of breath at the increasing pressure, but quickly regained her composure, refusing to give him the satisfaction of seeing her afraid.

Snaagbûrz could see the menacing glint in Gîmog's eyes and for a moment he thought that the murderous lust that had once been a permanent fixture there was going to resurface. The air went still as the two glared at each other.

"Kathleen?" Another girl came forward; her strange ropes of hair were tucked behind her ears a back behind her shoulders.

Dhûrum stepped in front of her before she could move any further and faced Gîmog. "Leave it." He grumbled stiffly, looking to all three of them engaged in this fight.

Gîmog huffed in Kathleen's face, causing her to flinch away from the sudden rush of air, and looked over his shoulder at Snaagbûrz, releasing her now throbbing hand.

"You're lucky, filth. Better hope there's a woman 'round to protect you the next time." Gîmog chuckled and walked away. Dhûrum looked at the tormented Orc and met his eyes. He nodded curtly before walking away and urging the females to do the same. The woman, Kathleen, stood and looked at him for a moment.

"Next time my ass." She muttered to herself. She met his eyes and turned to follow the others.

Snaagbûrz spat and sighed. He didn't need anyone protecting him. He followed them with his eyes, and only when they were a suitable distance away did he thump back to the ground and look at the mess the attack had made of his space. He let out a long slow breath and rubbed at his temple. Moving his hand across the earth, he swept the worst of it away, then started again with his arduous task.

His mind began to wander. He'd never seen a white skin like the ones now in the middle of camp. Only one had the pale white skin that had earned their kind its name. The one that had pulled Gîmog down, her skin was a soft brown as well as the other two. It was strange. He looked up towards them again. They had taken seats near the fire. The females looked uncomfortable in this environment and one shifted awkwardly when Gîmog threw himself down a little too close.

Snaagbûrz turned and saw Strokarth coming towards him. He scooted back to make room for the light Uruk to sit. Strokarth was much different in appearance and temperament than any Uruk you could ever expect to meet. His skin was not the dark brown, red, or black that was common for an Uruk. He was very light coloured, and his eyes shone a bright shining yellow from under his brow, which, still being as heavy as his kind always possessed, was not lined with years of rage and horror that came with being ruled as they had been. He had an innocence about him, and his inquisitive nature entertained Snaagbûrz on most days.

"What are the tarks doing back here?" He asked wide eyed. He positioned his body in a way that made it completely obvious that he was starring at the females near the fire.

"Don't know." Snaagbûrz grunted, running his hand over the ground distractedly.

"I ain't never seen any like them before." Strokarth said curiously, and looked back towards Snaagbûrz. "Have you?"

"Nah. They're different. Not from around here I'm guessin."

"Yeah." Strokarth said distantly."I wanna talk to 'em..."

"Gotta get past that git first." Snaagbûrz nodded to Gîmog.

Strokarth shuddered slightly at the thought of even talking to the brute.

Vicky sat closest to the fire. She was grateful for the heat of it on her back, though she almost envied the others, who, from their positions could warm their sore feet at a safe distance. The thought of her feet made them throb painfully and she grimaced. There was a less comforting heat at her side where Gîmog sat. She looked to Isla and met her eyes. Isla glanced up to the Orc then back, understanding and pity on her face.

Kathleen had her arms folded over her chest. She hadn't stopped glaring at Gîmog, who continuously met her gaze and starred back pointedly, malice etched into every harsh line of his face. It was as if he was testing her. The corner of his mouth curved up and opened as he was about to speak.

"Oi!" Kûfdergaz called in their direction. He looked at the big dark Orc and motioned for him to come. He obliged without a word. He hadn't sat down with the rest of them so simply uncrossed his arms and strode over to the leader. Aquila hadn't regained her composure since the incident on their way here and was the only one that hadn't looked up at the Orc's departure.

"What happened when we stopped?" Isla asked lightly, noticing Aquila's long, awkward silence. Gîmog chuckled, sounding like dry gravel in a cement mixer. Vicky and Isla looked at him quizzically before Aquila spoke

"Oh, you know..." She looked to them cautiously. She met Gîmog's knowing gaze and pursed her lips to the side. There was a moment of silence in which all eyes were on Aquila and Aquila's eyes darted around between them. Blue, brown, brown, red, brown, and back to blue. The snaps and crackled of the fire were the only thing filling the silence.

"Uh, no, we don't really know." Isla finally said.

"She went and grabbed herself a hand full of Orc a-"

"I DID NOT grab his ass!" She blurted out in a panic, realize how loud she was speaking halfway through. She quickly covered her mouth once she realized how she had shrieked. Kufdergaz and the other looked up from their conversation at the noise, but quickly returned. "Shit. It was an accident!" Aquila whispered. "It was just... lower... back... region." She motioned around in the air, trying to explain, and then rubbed her face with her hands in exasperation, pulling down on her cheeks and stretching her face oddly.

Kathleen finally uncrossed her arms as her face changed from anger to excitement "Oh my god." She cheered and clapped her hands "Aquila!"

"Shut up! I didn't mean to." Aquila said defensively. "He scares the crap out of me." They all looked over towards where the dark Uruk was talking with Kufdergaz. The leader was talking quietly for once and there were a lot of brief nods from the dark one.

Gîmog's chuckle was what brought their attention back to their little group "He can't do nothing to you, pretty ones." Gîmog brought two clawed fingers up and tapped the side of his temple. "Been screwed up, house trained. That bastard spent too much time 'round your kind." He chided.

"What do you mean?" Aquila asked hesitantly.

"Can't tell you that exactly, luv. Just know he holed up with 'em for a while after the war, and things went to shit. You want a real Orc," He laughed and turned to leer at Kathleen "You come to me."

"Yeah..." Aquila gave him a wary look of disgust. "They have been saying you're different." She said tentatively.

"Aye." He said, turning back to her.

"What does that even mean?" Isla asked.

Gîmogrûz let out a deep breathy chuckled and looked to each of them in turn. It was really quite unsettling. Then he spoke in his deep gravelly voice.

"When _sharkû_'s breeding program got a little too... fruitful." He snickered to himself. "Too many newborns, not enough whips to keep 'em in shape. Old bastard was in over his head, buried in Uruk-hai piss and blood. So he asked for a little help from the eye." Gîmog looked pointedly at Kathleen, "The eye singled out the biggest and best of his army to lend a whippin arm." His sly smile broadened across his face and his eyes shone with mischief. "Some of them were deemed big enough and nasty enough to be sent down to the breedin pits and have their pick of whatever shit covered tark prisoner they wanted to stick a whelp into." He laughed grimly at their expressions of disgust and shock.

"And it only took one round for the bastard to see his fucking mistake when all the half breeds came out of the mud just as fucked up and disobedient as this fucking waste of talûn-karkû."

Kûfdergaz stood behind them with the dark Uruk at his side. The girls jumped when they made themselves known.

"That's fucking fucked up." Aquila mumbled.

"It's just like in the stories." Kathleen said in an airy far off voice, and then shuddered.

"Wonderful" Isla said "I assume all of the other horrible things that happened in the stories are also true."

"What the fuck are you talking about?" Kûfdergaz snapped.

"Nothing. Nothing at all."

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Thank's everyone for reading. Please drop me a review if you like it or even if you don't. It's much appreciated :)

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_Translation:_

_Sharkû : Wizard or Old man_

_Talûn-karkû : Semen (haha sorry)_


	11. Chapter 11

Thank you all for reading and thank you so much to those who've reviewed! It means a lot.

Also I learned that when I add separating lines in Word they do not transfer onto here. Sorry about that! Must have been confusing... I'll go through again and fix any mistakes I can find :)

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Chapter Eleven: Too Early For Painful Reminders

Aquila awoke to a sharp kick to the ribs from Kathleen. She started, thinking it was one of the Orc's, but hearing Kathleen's hissed demand for them to wake up and the other two women rudely kicked in the same manner, Aquila relaxed and cursed her friend under her breath. They all stayed lying down, as they adjusted their eyes to the pale blue of the sky above them.

"Guys," Kathleen whispered again. There was a grunt from Vicky. "Guys, we haven't eaten since we got here..."

They all took that in for a second, then there was a chorus of groans from each of them. Aquila sat up with a labored sigh and looked at the lot of them. Kathleen followed suit and they both started looking around the camp. Gîmog had Bûsnkaar attached at his side once again and they sat not too far off, Gîmog talking and laughing with the stoic giant. Well more talking and laughing at him.

"I have to pee, guys." Vicky said, pushing herself up as well.

"How do we even go about that?" Aquila replied, looking around them. "Bushes I'm assuming. No wipe for you." She giggled a little before realizing that the thought really wasn't funny at all and her expression dropped.

"What do I do?" Vicky said a little grimly.

"Guess we ask that asshole." Kathleen said nodding in the general direction of Gîmogrûz and the Berserker. They all looked immediately uncomfortable at the thought of asking that creep such a question and what he would say to it.

"How about no? Can't I just go off and do it?" Vicky said, looking pleadingly at Kathleen.

"Well we don't know if they have a designated... place... for that, or you know, where they all are." Isla said hesitantly.

"True... Kathleen, you mind?" Vicky said sheepishly "You're the... talky, uh, straight forward one."

"Fuck you." Kathleen groaned and glared at Vicky for a moment before standing with a huff and turning towards the only Orc they really knew at all. "Hey... big asshole, bully, uh, Orc dude, Gîmog!"

Gîmog raised an eyebrow and looked towards them to see the pairs of uneasy looking eyes and one pair of annoyed, insistent ones. Kathleen vigorously motioned for him to come over. He did not give his usual grin but instead, huffed, looked to Bûsnkaar and shrugged in their direction. They both rose and came towards the girls, still sitting in their blankets on the ground, and loomed over them.

"What d'you need, Nûrz-ash?" He said gruffly.

"I don't know what that means!" Kathleen shrieked at him. And there was the predatory grin. "Uhm," she continued "so what if we have to, you know, let go, water works, go to the little girls room, make water, yellow rain, flood Isengard, uh..." Gîmog's smile dropped a little and confusion showed at the corners of eyes. "Ugh, pee- we have to- pee, piss- she has to take a piss!"

Gîmog chuckled. His eyebrow was quirked as he smiled at them. He swooped his hand behind him, gesturing towards the trees.

"Piss where ever you want, girlies. Aint none'a my buisness."

Kathleen groaned loudly "What about the other guys? We don't know where they are. We don't need them watching us!"

Gîmog took a step closer to her and his shadow loomed over her in an intimidating manner. "You don't want'em watching, you go somewhere they can't see."

Kathleen glared at him and sighed, before taking a step back. His nostrils flared at the empty space she was just occupying and she did nothing to hide the disgusted look that inspired.

"Oi!" Kufdergaz was walking towards them holding a bag in one hand. "rations." He said pointedly and both Gîmog and Bûsnkaar turned towards him. Kûf reached into the bag and pulled out a few strips off dried meat, handing a few carefully counted out pieces to each Orc. He turned towards the girls and nodded, "Hold out your hands." The girls obliged, excited to be receiving food. He handed them each two long pieces and looked over his shoulder at Gîmog and Bûsnkaar before returning his gaze to the women. "I need to talk to you four about your work."

"Ugh." Aquila rose to stand before him. "What do you mean?"

"What the fuck can you lot do?"

He looked to each of them in turn as they all exchanged uneasy looks with each other. "Uh..." Vicky trailed off "Stuff...?"

"What do you mean, stuff?" His face hardened once again. Gîmog laughed from behind the leader and started walking back towards his previous spot, putting a piece of meat between his teeth and biting off a chunk.

"Well what exactly do you mean by _What the fuck can you lot do_?" Aquila asked, repeating what the leader had said in a falsely gruff voice "I mean, I can tell you exactly how to use your commas and semi colons, but something tells me that that wouldn't be particularly useful in the middle of Mirkwood with a bunch of grouchy Orcs-sorry!" Kûfdergaz had shot her a venomous glare.

"You're all fucking useless aren't you?" He snapped.

"Well shit," Kathleen stood on the other side of him and glared up at his brown face. "how are we supposed to know what we need to be able to do out here?"

He growled at her. "Fine. I want each of you to go and have a chat with one of the boys. I don't give a shit who, anyone here can teach you something better that the shit-all you've got."

"We don't even know anyone!" Isla exclaimed.

"Learn that too!" He barked at her. He turned and left, grumbling, to hand out the rest of the rations to the camp.

They sat in silence for a moment, looking at each other.

"Well... I have to pee. Help me up." Vicky said to no one in particular and threw her hands up in the air for no one in particular to grab. Aquila and Kathleen grabbed one each and pulled her up.

"Let's do that." Aquila muttered. They all wandered off past the tree line, constantly looking around in a paranoid manner. They set up a guard system and a perimeter to make sure no curious Orcs could sneak their way up close to take a look. And so they devised a great strategic war plan as they all peed in the woods.

* * *

"I feel gross." Isla said, holding her hands up before her and looking at them disapprovingly as they walked back towards the sound of Orc chatter and crackling fire.

"Whatever, man, just don't stick your fingers in your mouth... or anyone else's mouth. Feel free to touch Orcs though; they're use to being dirty." Aquila said, a little too cheerily. "How are we doing this anyway? The whole learning thing?"

"Do we split up?" Vicky asked passively.

"Yeah." Kathleen answered "I mean, there are enough for one teacher each, why not?"

"Expand our horizons and what not, I suppose, huh?" Aquila said.

They broke through he trees and looked around. "Do we choose or something." murmured Isla, putting her arms back down at her sides.

"Guess so. We can't really choose what skill we want to learn or even who we like. Who the frick are these dudes? We just don't know." Aquila said in a mocking voice. "I don't know..." she trailed off.

"They all sorta freak me out." Isla said.

"Me too." Vicky agreed.

"I call the dude that dick picked on last night!" Kathleen cried. She took a step forward as if she were about to go and find the afore mentioned Orc.

"Wha-wait!" Aquila called out, reaching forward for her. Kathleen stopped and turned.

"What?"

"What are we supposed to do? I don't know how to deal with these guys."

"Just pretend they're like the ones we've read about." Kathleen smiled, turned again and walked away.

"But are they?" Vicky huffed.

"I'm not even sure that would be any better." Isla said sullenly.

"Nothing brightens a situation more that looking at it like you're surrounded by a bunch of rapists and murderers." Vicky said sarcastically.

"Oh shush your face, you can go talk to that little bugger that fixed your leg." Aquila groaned at her.

"Oh hey, yeah. He's alright." She perked up a little.

"What about us then?" Asked Isla.

"We just don't know. I mean, you could go with, uhhh, that dude. He looks harmless enough I guess." Aquila pointed across the clearing, past Kathleen, to a strangely bright eyed Orc. His whole demeanor just seemed... soft.

"I guess..." She looked up to Aquila's dark brown eyes. "What about you?"

"I don't know, I guess I could go with Kufder-whats-it." She shrugged.

"Fine. Do we... do we go then?" Vicky stammered.

"While we're still young, yeah." Aquila laid a hand in both of the girl's shoulders and gave them each a little shove forwards "Make mother proud!" She called after them as they made their way uncertainly into the open, looking around to their assigned "teachers".

Aquila sighed once more and looked around for her own teacher. She spotted Kûf to one side, seated between two large packs. She wasn't particularly thrilled about pairing up with the grumpy git, but it was him, or Gîmog, and the latter seemed even less pleasant.

"Well, what are you gonna do?" She muttered to herself under her breath as she started forward. She met his eyes as she grew closer and he rolled them at her, standing. "What's up, our fearless leader?" She said, awkwardly, now trying to avoid his intense Orange and yellow eyes.

"What are you doing?" He said not as harsh as she would have expected.

"We've decided to divide and conquer... you know, what with the learning." She shrugged and fussed her lip between her teeth.

He stood and took a step forward to peer around a tree, looking for the other three. He snorted and started walking, porpousfully towards Isla. Aquila realized where he was headed and caught up to him quickly.

"Wait, what are you doing?" She said trying to keep pace with his longer stride "It's better this way, we can all do our-"

"Your friend ain't gonna accomplish nothin talking to Strokarth. He's even more useless than you." He interrupted her, continuing forward.

Aquila looked to the fascinated Orc currently staring up at Isla as she fiddled with her hands behind her back and spoke with him. Both of them jumped slightly and directed their attention to Kûfdergaz as he got close and snapped at them. "You," He jabbed a finger in Isla's direction. "Come on, this one's useless." He said bitterly, shooting a disapproving look at the light coloured Orc who subsequently looked downwardly disappointed. Isla looked him over questioningly before back at Kûfdergaz, a little confused.

"But then-"

"I'll take ya to Bûsnkaar. Come on." He spun around and started walking again. Isla looked at Aquila, who shrugged before they both followed him. He stopped once he got to where Gîmog was sitting and Aquila let out a little breathy "Oh."

"Get up you big bastard." He said gruffly to the big guy sitting on the ground. The berserker and Gîmogrûz made eye contact before the berserker rose from his seat, towering over Kûfdergaz. "Teach this tark something, would you?" He gestured to Isla, who shrank a little as his eyes followed his leader's finger. The berserker looked at Kûfdergaz and furrowed his brow in confusion.

"Just show her your fucking axe or fuck, anything! Teacher 'er how to work." He said, rubbing the bridge of his nose.

"I could teach her a thing or two." Gîmog offered snidely from the ground, grinning.

"I don't give a shit, make her of use to us."

"Not him!" Isla shouted without her own permission. She tensed when they all looked at her. "uhm..."

"Fine." Kûfdergaz said before she could defend her outburst. He looked to the huge standing Uruk again and threw a thumb over his shoulder towards Isla. "Go." And with that Kûfdergaz took off once more. Aquila sighed and looked for a moment between Isla and the massive towering form of the Orc. She smiled a little at the sight. They both looked equally unsure of what to do. Isla looked up and met her eyes and Aquila's amused smile turned to one of reassurance before she turned and ran to catch up with her teacher once more.

"What does he do?" She asked once she reached him.

"He looked at her over his shoulder and huffed."He's strong, don't know what he could teach her exactly, but any bustard is better than the foshan."

Aquila scrunched her face up for a moment in thought "I know that word... I think." They reached Kûfdergaz's original spot and stopped as he sat down.

"Means infant."

"That's the one." she exclaimed, pointing a victorious finger at him.

"Sit your ass down!" He snapped, quickly destroying her victory. She sat with a huff and crossed her arms.

"Alright. So what can you teach my worthless ass, huh?"

"Many things," He said to her. "Can show ya how to use a weapon, or track, fight-"

"Can you tell me who all of these guys are? I still don't know all their names."

The Orc sighed and locked eyes with her. "What good'll that do?"

"Well I won't be stumbling around, constantly confused by everyone. And it'll certainly make communication easier, which I guess is a main one."

He looked at her in silence for an uncomfortable moment. "Fair enough." He grumbled and turned away to look past her, out towards the others sitting around the camp. "You already know Gîmogrûz and the story of his useless existence."

Aquila nodded.

"You and he don't seem to get along very well." She added.

"I put up with his filth, as we all do." He left no room for more inquiry on the matter. He raised a dark clawed hand and pointed to the berserker who was now walking Isla away from his charge, off to teach her whatever skill it was he had. "The berserker is Bûsnkaar."

"And what's his story?" Aquila said curiously. Kûfdergaz huffed again and looked at her with a warning look. "Sorry! Everything is just really interesting to me." She folded her hands in her lap and pulled her mouth shut, looking at him expectantly. He turned back and sighed.

"Was born to kill and die, killed, didn't die, escaped. There's your fucking story."

"Wonderful." Aquila muttered unsatisfied, under her breath.

"Gazushum," He motioned to the small Uruk sitting next to Vicky on his linen blanket, he had a small chest open and was showing her various things. She looked completely confused. "Healer." Kûfdergaz said gruffly.

"He's smaller than the rest of you." Aquila noted.

"Do you want to know or not?" He snapped at her.

"Gah! Fine!" She cried, throwing her hands up defensively. He took a long deep voice. "But, I mean, he's small... and alive. That's different, right?" He released the breath in a loud exasperated manner.

"He was born back when Sharkû still gave a shit about his army. Would have been killed and fed to the Wargs, the healer of the time hadn't snatched him up an offered to train 'im."

"Why's he missing his stereotypical Uruk-hai locks?" Kûfdergaz looked at her, confused. "Hair?" She motioned to his long black hair falling down his back.

"Wouldn't bathe for a while, started getting rank, so Gîmogrûz cut it off." He said shortly

"That'll do, I guess. Continue." She folded her arms over her chest a looked forward.

"Snaagbûrz, had a rough time of it in his time before the flood." He nodded towards the Orc Kathleen was currently with. He was crouched forward and looked to be begrudgingly showing Kathleen something Aquila couldn't quite make out. "And the worthless child, Strokarth."

"Why is he so worthless?" Aquila asked, looking quizzically at the side of Kûfdergaz's face.

"Never learned nothin. He was only pulled from the ground a few days before the tree's tore our master a new one."


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter Twelve: Elbow Deep In Gritty Knowledge

"I have no idea what that is, you know?"

"What?"

"That! It's just a weird smelling twig to me."

"Why? You do not know anything! I am trying to teach you."

Gazushum had pulled a small root from a wrap in his chest and had been showing it to Vicky, listing off its uses.

"Can't you just show me how to bandage or something?" She said desperately. He looked at her sideways disapprovingly. "Come on." she groaned.

He wrapped his strange ingredient back up in its cloth and placed it back in his little chest along with other things he'd pulled out and closed the lid, and running a hand through his short choppy hair and flipped open the nearby bag and started pulling other medical looking things out.

"What was your name again?" Vicky said quietly when he returned to sit before her with his new mess of things.

"Gazushum." He said, and pulled out a roll of light fabric. "And this is a bandage."

"Yeah, uh, I'm Vicky."

"Vicky. That is a strange name." He said, putting the bandage down and looking at her, almost in awe.

"Says you."

His face changed and got harder. He crossed his arms and glared at her. "Gazushum. Gaz-oosh-uhm. It's not difficult. There are much harder named to pronounce."

"Sorry." She said in half-hearted defense. "Gazushum."

He gave her a tiny nod and picked the bandages back up. "Here, give me your arm, I'll show you how to wrap this."

* * *

"Holy shit!" Kathleen laughed "Can I try?" Snaagbûrz said nothing, but handed her the flint with a fleeting glance. He had been reluctant to teach her anything or even acknowledge her at first, but with the threat of Kûfdergaz's wrath he grudgingly obliged to show her what he knew. She had helped him after all, even if he refused to admit it aloud, he could never win against Gîmogrûz. He never had.

Kathleen had a grasp on the general way to build a fire from her days camping as a child, but Snaagbûrz was rather technical about it. There was the grating shick shick of the flint and a spark caught, showing the effectiveness of the organization and time put into the small structure of wood that he had created as she watched. Kathleen laughed again as the flames quickly spread to the other sticks touching the first. He almost wondered at her for a moment as she looked into the small fire he had created, but stopped himself when she turned to look at him.

"Alright so what was the first part again?" He snuffed and ground his jaw at her, but stood to grab some more materials. "Does he always do that?" She asked abruptly in a quiet voice. He froze with his back to her.

"What?" He growled harshly at her.

"Gîmog. Is he always such an asshole?" She sensed that this was a sensitive subject and now regretted bringing it up at all.

"That is none of your business." He hissed at her and turned slightly to snarl at her. "It is not your place to interfere."

"I was just trying to help." She retorted, contorting her face into a mask of anger comparable his.

"I do not need your help, tark!" He growled back at her.

"Well shit! Fine!" She cried, standing now. "Go get your fucking sticks or whatever!" She pointed in the original direction he had started going. He growled loudly and whipped around to storm off for his materials.

* * *

The berserker didn't say much of anything at all. He had brought Isla to the edge of camp a good ways away from Gîmogrûz and pulled a large axe from a spot near anther tree. He walked off for a minute or two, in which time Isla did not know what to do or if he would be coming back. He did however return with a log and threw it down near her feet, making her jump. He pointed to it, then to the fire. "Fire wood?" She said, and he nodded. He handed her the huge axe and she took it tentatively, making a small strangled noise when she couldn't hold up its weight and dropped its head to the ground with a dull thud. He made a little noise though his nose and took it from her again, positioning his hands on it pointedly as she watched. He held it out to her, meeting her eyes.

"Hold." He said shortly and looked to his hands. Isla nodded, understanding, and he held it out to her again, moving his own hands out of the way to be replaced by her small, pale fingers. She gripped it tightly and looked up to him. He met her eyes before letting go. The weight of the axe was still too much for her and the sharp end of it fell to the ground. She jumped back, moving her feet out of harm's way still holding the handle of the massive tool.

"Sorry." She said, meeting his multicoloured eyes once again. He shrugged and walked around behind her. She froze completely when she felt his arms come around her shoulders as he leant down to pick up the axe. Her breath caught in her throat. He brought the axe up in front of her and held it a foot before her.

"Hold." He murmured once more. She shuddered at the sound of his voice, too close for comfort, but reached out and put her hands in their previous places. She could feel him release some of the weigh onto her arms and she steeled herself. He pulled it in towards her chest to show her what to do, and she continued until the handle was right up against her. He continued releasing from there and the weight grew steadily, pushing the breath out of her.

He let go completely and she held it up. He walked around to stand in front of her. He let her keep its weight for a few torturous seconds before grabbing it and lifting it effortlessly from her arms.

"Practice." He said, hefting the axe in his hands without strain. "Make you strong." He nodded towards her. She nodded briefly in return.

"So I should practice." She said hesitantly. He nodded to her. "So I can lift the axe."

"To fight. Protect. Work." He swung the axe slowly through the air in front of him in an arc and looked at her. "I help you. Make you strong."

"Uh, thank you..." She looked at him, trying to remember the name he had told them their fist night here. He seemed to understand her pause.

"Bûsnkaar." He said clearly.

"Bûsnkaar." She repeated. "Thank you, Bûsnkaar." She smiled at him and he nodded once more.

* * *

"Okay so, Bûsnkaar, Snaagbûrz, Gîmogrûz, Strokarth, Gazushum, and you. Mr. Grumpy pants with the short fuse." Aquila said mockingly. Kûfdergaz made an annoyed sound in his throat and glared at her.

"Kûfdergaz." He hissed harshly.

"Okay so... wait. There was a... seventh. There was a seventh guy."

"What are you talking about?"

"The, uh, the dark, tall, creepy... one. What's his name?"

"Dhûrum." Rumbled an incredibly deep voice from behind the pair. Aquila nearly jumped out of her skin and let out a weak squeak. Dhûrum strode towards them from the bushes behind their sitting area. He stopped just in front of Aquila and looked to the leader.

"Aye, Dhûrum. Sent him out to hunt. I see you did well." Dhûrum grunted in affirmative and Aquila regarded the massive buck slung over his shoulder with grim fascination. Kûfdergaz returned his attention to her and she met his eyes. "Gonna need more meat now that you lot are here. Leather too." He nodded to Aquila crudely wrapped feet. The thin fabric was pointless really, it had already worn through is some spots baring her feet. The Orc regarded her inquisitive and scared expression for a minute then looked back to the massive black Uruk standing behind him. "We've been trying to work some skills into these women today." He met Aquila's eyes and smiled mischievously. "Mind showing this one how to clean that beast?" Aquila looked intrigued for a second, and then glanced nervously up at Dhûrum, who was now watching her as well.

"Uh..." She stammered.

"Go on." Kûfdergaz said in an uncharacteristically light tone and Dhûrum gave another gruff grunt before heading towards the fire. Aquila got up and with one last look at Kûfdergaz, full with as much distaste as she could manage, she followed.

The stag was thrown down gracelessly next to the fire and Dhûrum leant down, pulling a sharp curved knife from his belt. He paused and looked up; meeting the boyish looking woman's eyes then flicking to the ground next to him. Aquila got the message and moved to kneel by his side. He nodded and turned back to his kill, pointing to the place between the deer's two front legs then looking pointedly back to her.

"Cut from here, to here." He moved his fingers down to between the back legs.

"Wait, now? Just like that?" She said, pulling back slightly. All she received was a low grunt and nod in response as he pushed the knife towards her. She looked between him and the sharp implement before taking it, uncertainly. Dhûrum slid out of her way and motioned for her to go at it. She shuffled awkwardly into the spot he had previously occupied.

"Uh... You know I've always wanted to do this, but..."

"Keep the knife pointed up. Cut anythin' ya shouldn't and there'll be a mess." He instructed her. She was just staring at the buck, knife in hand, too afraid to make a move. She looked at him and laughed nervously as he starred back with intense contrasting eyes.

"You know," She looked back to the dead animal. "I think that's the longest sentence I've ever heard you say." She swallowed hard. "Right... my grandpa always said that _hunting was for men." _ She looked uncomfortable and weighed the knife in her hand. "I was... never really one for gender roles. Not that that matters now." She ran her other hand through her short hair and chuckled, then grasped the handle and held the knife against the deer's sternum. "Never had anyone else to take me otherwise." She realized that she was beginning to prattle on and that this massive Uruk probably didn't give a damn or even properly understand what she was talking about. "Suppose I'll have to get used to doing this now that I'm stuck here." She took a deep breath, squeezed her eyes shut, and with a little quiet squeal punctured through the animals hide with sickening ease.

"Oh shit!" Her eyes shot open and she started at what she had done. A smile slowly dawned on her face and she let out a giggle. "Awesome. Now what?" She looked up at Dhûrum with bright eyes. He once again made a noise in his throat that could almost qualify as a chuckle.

"Cut down." He leaned over and drew a line down the Bucks stomach with his finger. "Careful."

"Okay, please excuse me while I get way too into this." She muttered, both to Dhûrum and to herself. Her expression set into a concentrated scrunch as she continued about her work with occasional direction from the massive Orc.

It took Aquila a good amount of time to get the job done, during which Dhûrum remained by her side, strangely patient. The sun was high above their heads now, and while Aquila had been getting elbow deep in deer guts the others had been training and practicing new skills.

Though a lot of bickering had occurred, Kathleen had made a fairly suitable fire, which she and Snaagbûrz were currently sitting at, coldly avoiding conversation. Isla had been given a pretty big, heavy looking stick, by Bûsnkaar and had been told to swing it, albeit clumsily, like a sword. Until of course, Gîmog had pestered her into throwing it in his direction and stomping off to sit with Vicky and Gazushum, leaving Bûsnkaar looking rather lost as Gîmog guffawed loudly, earning himself a hard glare from the berserker before he sat back down and resumed his silent position at Gîmogrûz's side.

"Well..." Aquila held her hands away from her body in a stiff manner. "I, uh, I'm covered in blood." She said, just as stiffly. The sound that came from the dark Orc now was unmistakably a chuckle. He picked up his knife from where she'd left it by the freshly gutted carcass, slid in front of Aquila and started cutting and pulling different parts from the pile of guts. He removed the heart, liver, and kidney, then stood, holding them in his massive hands, and looked at her.

"I wrap these. Then get that off you." He nodded to her hands and the bloody state they were in.

* * *

"Guys!" Angus called and his voice sounded through the rest of the flat. Annika and Katlyn came running into his dark room as fast as they could.

"What?" They both cried.

Angus spun around in his chair and looked at them wide-eyed. "I have a name and address." there was a moment of silence when the girls both stared at him.

"Which are?" Katlyn said impatiently.

"Okay okay!" Angus spun back around and Annika and Katlyn came to stand behind him, looking over his shoulders at the screen. "Her name is Gemini Zoe."

"How do you even find this? It's so creepy." Annika interrupted.

"SHhhhhhh Shut up!" Angus hissed, waving his hand in her general direction. "She lives like a short plane ride and a six hour drive away from here."

"Wait what?" Katlyn said.

"Are we planning on going to see her?" Both girls looked slightly concerned and shocked.

"Well, yeah!" Angus said in a high pitched voice. "We need to talk to this bitch! She's got out friends in there! You read the thing,THEY DON'T HAVE SHOES!" He cried.

"Well I don't know! Can't we just like, call her or something." Annika suggested shyly.

"Nooo!" Angus cooed as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"I think it's a little too important anyway, to have a conversation about if over the phone." Katlyn said calmly. Angus gestured to Katlyn, still looking at Annika with a you-fucking-see-bitch kind of expression.

"Fine!" Annika threw her hands up and then crossed her arms, looking upset.

"Anyway, I think we should go soon and try to figure all this crap out!"

"We can't miss our exams." Katlyn said.

"After then." Angus turned back to his screen. "But as soon as possible, who knows what could happen to them there. I'll keep reading meanwhile and keep tabs."

Annika and Katlyn looked at each other and shrugged. "Speaking of exams," Annika said "Can I see your notes?"

"Sur-"

"Okay you guys go talk about school elsewhere! I'll be in here worrying about the possible deaths and disappearances of our friends!" Angus shouted sardonically. Katlyn came up and put a hand on his shoulder.

"You can't do this all night every night, you know? They'll be fine, and if anything happens,"

"Hey, It's all being documented!" Annika finished cheerily. Angus sighed deeply and turned slightly to look at them both.

"Yeah yeah I know. Now go, go do your do."

The two girls left his room quietly to go off and finish whatever it was they had to. He turned back to his screen and closed the windows he had open, before turning it off. "Goodnight, sweet prince." He murmured as the power light blinked out. Without the light his room was black. He made his way to his bed with practiced ease, and lay his exhausted body down to bed with a long sigh. "They'll be fine." He repeated Katlyn's words to himself then threw on his blankets and fell into much needed sleep.


	13. Chapter 13

I'm sorry it took me so long to update. I have a feeling this chapter will be full of mistakes and bad writing, so juts let me know. Hope you enjoy it.

It might be a little cheesy, but hey! I try my best.

* * *

Chapter Thirteen: And in The Darkness Bind Them (AKA Gender Wars)

After Dhûrum had wrapped the gory vittles he moved off towards the trees, stopping to look back to Aquila. He met her eyes and gestured loosely with a clawed hand for her to follow. She raised her eyebrows and her mouth worked, trying to form words as he turned, leaving without assurance that she would follow. Aquila still felt very unsure about Dhûrum. The time she had spent working at the beast under his scrutiny had lessened her tension towards him only slightly.

"Uhm..." Aquila said stupidly to no one at all. She turned around, looking in the opposite direction of where the massive Orc had disappeared, and worried her lip between her teeth, searching for answers among the seated, relaxed forms of her friends. Finding none she turned back again, torn.

Kûfdergaz caught her eye and she realized he was staring at her with an unimpressed expression. He threw a thumb towards where Dhûrum had gone and called to her.

"Get that mess gone, Woman. We don't need you getting attacked by nothin."

Aquila sighed and looked down to her sticky, blood-covered hands, clenching and unclenching her fists uncomfortably. She looked at Kûf once more before walking towards the trees, determinedly, and disappearing. Once that bit was done she realized she had no idea where she was going, and not seeing Dhûrum anywhere, she stopped and cursed herself under her breath. "Kûfdergaz?" she called back out towards camp without moving. The leader's loud annoyed sigh graced her ears with its agitated existence.

"Aye?"

"Which way?"

"Keep going straight. Dhûrum ain't gonna let you get lost."

_Great _Aquila thought to herself. She blew a heavy breath up her face, making her hair flutter away from her forehead, and began to walk once again. She had no trouble weaving her way between the trees and soon came to a little river bank. The branches of the trees all hung out over the space above and the sun shone lightly through, covering the area in a warm, soothing feel. The ground was covered in smooth grey stones, and grass was pushing its way though between the larger spaces. The sound and smell of fresh, moving water brought a smile to Aquila's face as she took in the new area.

"Wow." She whispered.

Aquila came back to her senses and noted that the large dark Uruk was nowhere to be seen. She froze and listened hard for any indication of him.

There was a soft rustle above and behind her and she whipped around to see him drop from the lower branches of a tree with a padded thump and rise gracefully.

"Why were you..." She started hesitantly.

He came towards her and huffed, cutting her off, and nodding to her hands, then turned and headed off downstream.

"Right." She was uneasy now, once again chewing her lip, but she shrugged it off as best she could and went to the business at hand.

Aquila walked to a little outcrop of dirt, supported by the roots of a large tree, and kneeled. The water was crystal clear and she watched as some little stones, dislodged by her knees, fell in and were whisked away in the current.

The water was ice cold as she lowered her red hands into it. It swirled around her fingers, the little torrents turning pink as they washed away the mess. She shivered as her hands numbed and hurriedly splashed water up her forearms. She began scrubbing at the crusted blood there trying to get clean as quickly as possible.

Aquila had unbuttoned the white cuffs of her sleeves and rolled them up so that they avoided most of the mess, but her rushed cleansing had soaked the bottoms of the rolled fabric and the chill of the water spread farther up. She finally lifted her cold digits from the freezing river and shook them, trying to force the blood back into her fingertips. She examined herself with bright brown eyes, making sure she was now completely free of red.

Remembering that she still probably had black all over her face from the fire incident the other morning she cupped her hands and brought the water up to her face and scrubbed. The cold went like a shock through her skull and down her spine and she finished quickly, shaking her head and blinking hard to keep the drops of water on her dark lashes from blurring her vision. She ran a wet hand through her hair and stood, the knees of her loose-fitting jeans were damp and dirty. Aquila sighed.

She looked back to the water as a thought hit her. "We're going to have to bathe in something like this eventually aren't we..." She said to herself. Just the thought of it made her tense. She looked down the bank and caught Dhûrum's head turning towards her. He watched on for a moment before looking away lazily and Aquila wondered at just how good his hearing was, and if perhaps he had heard her talking to herself. He was squatting on a large flat boulder a little ways down the river and cut off from the rocky bank. The water flowed on either side of his perch, his knife in hand as he wiped it clean with a wet strip of fabric.

"Dhûrum?" Aquila tested. She said it just loud enough to be conversational volume. It would have been difficult to hear from his distance away, let alone over the noise of running water, and yet the massive black Uruk's head rose, his ear twitched, and he looked at her once more. Aquila went rigid, even more uncomfortable now. "Uh. That is really creepy!" She called it out to him this time, her voice rising above the noise. He turned back to his knife and his shoulders jerked briefly as if he had chuckled, then he stood and swung the knife down in a wide arc, sending a fan of water droplets from it, and made his way back to the bank, hoping fluidly from slippery boulder to slippery boulder with the practiced ease that he seemed to have in everything he did.

"Startlingly unexpected moves from an orc." She said sincerely as he came up to stand in front of her. His eyebrow quirked up the slightest bit at her comment as he looked down at her intensely. "So yeah, all clean." Aquila held up her hands awkwardly. Dhûrum said nothing. "Uh..." She was now avoiding his eyes, as she assumed they were currently busy boring into her very god damn soul, and distractedly started rolling down one of her cold, damp sleeves.

"Okay you're starting to freak me out with the eyes." She decided the silence and soul boring had gone on a little too long.

A deep purr came from his chest before he spoke. "Strange." He said without further explanation.

"What?" She looked up and saw he was still starring. "Me? Not the first time I've heard that, bud."

He grunted through his nose. "You look... strange. Like a man."

"Yeah, you know you should be careful who you say that to. Most women would probably be offended." She ran a cold hand over the side of her face, feeling a little exasperated.

He gestured a hand to her entirety. "How? Why?"

"How? The magic of binders. Taking away the most noticeable land mark of woman hood tends to confuse most. Why? Well..." Aquila shrugged. "because I can. Because it makes my heart happy, shouldn't we be getting back?" She said with just a hint of snark.

Dhûrum quirked his head to the side and she sighed. Aquila motioned a large band going across where her breasts would have been visible and two more going up over her shoulders with her thumbs and forefingers,. "Binder. It... flattens." She patted her chest.

Dhûrum looked thoroughly confused. He stared deeply at her and his brow twitched together briefly as he tried to understand. "Flattens? Why? Is it armor?"

"In a way... I guess. I mean, it is to me. Though it doesn't exactly protect against weapons." He looked hopelessly lost now. "Look, it's just easier and safer to be a man where I come from!"

"Men fight wars. Take care of families. Protect." Dhûrum said it as if it were a question. Aquila suddenly felt like she was talking to a toddler, trying to explain the way the world works. The fact that it was, of course, a completely different world just made it weirder. Though he was probably a good 6"4 at least, and probably the scariest thing she had ever seen. Oh yeah, one hell of a toddler.

"Well back home both fight in the wars, both men and women do all of those things, but even when there's 'peace' or whatever, women are constantly fighting against, well, against a lot of shit you probably wouldn't understand. And this" Aquila quickly pulled at her shirt, un-tucking it and hoisting it up to reveal the zippered band of tight fabric on her chest. "this _is_ my armor, yes." She finished.

Dhûrum's constant outward composure slipped for an instant and he looked taken aback as if her actions were shockingly indecent. His face would have been funny had it not been at this moment. Surely he had been around much worse than a bare midsection before; he was Uruk-hai after all.

"Now, I don't know about you," She lowered her shirt and her eyes once more as she let the fabric fall, not bothering to tuck it back in. " but I'm about ready to head back. We've been gone suspiciously long." Aquila looked back up and met his eyes. "Gîmog has probably assumed the worst."

The walk back to camp seemed to take ten times longer than the walk there. Aquila was once again stuck behind the wide back of Dhûrum only this time her mind was far off and she barely noticed him. She took a deep breath. The tightness in her chest was getting worse and she knew it was not a good idea to keep that thing on for much longer, but to go without it seemed to her no better an idea than walking around buck naked. She didn't need the stress of being any more vulnerable. And so she cleared her throat and carried on.

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Promise I'll try to get the next chapter up sooner! :)


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